Facing many near deaths how Purplle became a Billion Dollar Marketplace for Cosmetics ft Founder, Manish Taneja

As per Statista, Market size of the cosmetics industry across India which was at $3 Bn in 2010 is expected to grow to atleast $20 Bn by 2025.

In today’s episode, we talk with Manish Taneja, Co-founder and CEO, Purplle, which was started back in 2012.

During the podcast Manish talks in detail about -

How he along with his Cofounders have always thought for the long-term?
Problems they faced back in 2012 in Vertical Ecommerce.
How MOATs against competitors are mostly in the minds of the founders? rather than being actually relevant to Indian customers, who are most price and value sensitive.
What’s unique about their culture that has helped them retain as well as hire new talent?
And more…

Lastly before we dive deeper into the podcast, something that Manish mentioned during the episode - “Our 2nd part of the journey has been about, believing in yourself, doing things that are contradictory to the world but at the same time, we think could create massive value in the future.”

Notes -

03:19 - Intro to Manish & Purplle

04:57 - Being from a Finance background what got him to start his 2nd venture in Online Beauty space?

10:32 - Challenges in Vertical Ecommerce back in 2012

12:29 - Challenges in delivery, cash flow and more in the first 5-6 years

17:30 - Two defining characteristics in their fund raising journey

2!:52 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?

22:55 - Learnings while his exit from Avendus Capital

24:18 - Major changes in the 2nd part of their journey from 2016-17 onwards

28:34 - Launching their own brands with 65%+ Gross Margin

31:08 - How has he evolved as a founder during Purplle’s journey?

33:21 - Shaping Purplle’s culture over the years