Episode 1 - Home

Q1. Starting with a simple one. As per its founder, this startup began as an act of fanatic activism against substandard occidental shit. While the company name has changed, the original brand 'X' still remains (among many other brands owned by the co). Name X.

Q2. X is a 2-word phrase that means something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important question. The phrase originated from this practice - a particular species of fish would be flavoured with strong saltwater turning it reddish & giving off a strong smell. When dogs were being trained to trail a particular scent, trainers would use the smell from this fish to throw the dog off the trail. In the modern world, however, X is also used as a prefix to Y in a totally different context. In this case, X is used to denote that Y is still a work in progress and not the final output. Identify X & Y

Q3. KA Enterprises LLP, set up by X in 2017, has bet on several startups. Started with Furlenco & Perpule. Later added space-tech, D2C, EVs & recently ed-tech. It's headed by Nitin Kanchan, a former investment banker, since owner X is busy with their job in another field. Name X

Q4. 33% of this entity is contributed by the creator of this entity. Another 45% is contributed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Other well-known contributors are Apple and Qualcomm. What's the entity I am talking about? PS: Contribution here doesn't mean charity

Q5. Avail Finance, founded by Ankush, is building the neo-bank for the next billion users in India. While Avail has onboarded Matrix and Falcon Edge in its later series rounds, its angel round was led by an individual X who also happens to be related to Ankush. Name X.

Q6. Levi Strauss began to make denim in the 1870s & the fabric quickly became popular with coal miners. The workers chose denim, which was of a darker colour, to hide soil marks. This led to the popularization of a term in the 1930s and is still in use today. What's the term?

Q7. Bundl was launched in 2013 by two friends to digitize the courier industry in India. E-commerce companies would get a delivery management web platform - a single place to contact any courier & track all shipments. Brilliant idea but a bit ahead of their time since e-commerce & D2C were still very early in India. So the founders pivoted - they stuck to the logistics space but with a different flavour. This company worked and we all today know it as ____?

Q8. This term was popularized by Aileen Lee in 2013 and is given to companies that cross a particular threshold. At that time, while there were many companies beyond this threshold, the probability of a company of a certain nature crossing this threshold was statistically rare - hence the term. Today, while the term is still used, Lee would be surprised by how common it is. What is the term being spoken about here?

Q9. X created this framework to help a founder assess whether their product/biz would create value or not. If the new biz created an experience that was better than the existing experience by a certain degree (as per a numeric scale), then X felt that users will not go back to the existing way of doing things. They will stick to the new way & the founder would have unlocked a pot of gold. Name X and the framework.

Q10. When a company decides to bid on taking over another company, the latter's management can reject the offer or find different ways to escape from being taken over. But sometimes, the company trying to take over makes such a generous offer the management cannot reject the offer without angering its shareholders who may say the management breached their duty of doing what's best for the shareholders. Thus making it an offer they cannot refuse. In the M&A world, what is such an offer called?

ANSWERS

Faasos (owned by Rebel Foods, now Eatsure) "Fanatic activism against substandard occidental shit" is the giveaway - shortens to Faasos

Softbank Vision Fund - 1 I did not accept just 'Softbank' as the answer as that's the holding company that contributed 33% to VF

Blue-collar worker Trick is to think of Denim as a fabric that can be used for shirts, not just trousers. But I agree the framing is a bit off and can see how jeans could be an equally good guess.

Swiggy In fact the legal entity of Swiggy is still named Bundl - that's the giveaway