LetsTransport

“Entrepreneurs fail a lot, but entrepreneurship itself is not a failure.” I ended up sharing this when talking about failures as a founder in a founder fest recently. And it feels so right. 🙂 I started LetsTransport back in 2015 and although in hindsight it looks like an easy decision, it wasn’t. After some good advice and a ton load of gyaan, the simplest framework I used to quit JP Morgan and startup -- “kya hi ho jaayega, let’s try. If nothing, at least will learn a lot.” 😅 Ever since it has been a roller-coaster of a journey, but the learning curve has only trended upwards. 📈 From potential co-founders leaving us and the first term sheet falling apart to reaching $100 million dollar+ in ARR, I have had my share of good and bad experiences as an entrepreneur. Here I am, going down memory lane and sharing an unfiltered snippet of my story. Hope you enjoy it. 🥂 Thank you GrowthX® for the coverage. 😊

The son of an LIC agent who built a 700 CR trucking business. Here’s his story👇 1/ Sudarshan was born into a middle-class family. Dad was an LIC agent, mom was a homemaker. “They instilled in us the capability to learn & outperform everyone.” This made him super competitive 🌱 2/ The competitiveness took him to Kota. The fire of cracking JEE was high. But, being away from home riddled him with depression & homesickness 😔 3/ Despite the struggles, in 2008, he managed to turn it around. And, IIT Kharagpur became a reality 👑 4/ “I wanted to become an IAS officer as a kid & there was a hunger to lead.” This took him to the corporate world. From 2013 to 2015, he served stints at giants Accenture & J.P. Morgan 🚀 5/ After both the stints, he knew this wasn’t where he wanted to be. “I kept thinking I can do much more. I felt the only thing that should limit me is my will to grow.” He knew he wanted to build something of his own 💪 6/ In 2015, LetsTransport was born. The insight was simple: e-commerce brought all products online, but, it was still a hassle to find a truck for people shifting homes or companies shipping goods 🚛 7/ “When we started, we didn’t know what the right solution was.” However, they knew that the pain point was genuine & the market opportunity was large. But, things didn’t get off to a rosy start 🔻 8/ The first term sheet fell apart. A close friend didn’t join as co-founder. Enterprises didn’t want to work with newbies. The first product launch failed. Their biggest client shutdown within 3 months 🥺 9/ “I think back in those days, my ego led me to persevere beyond my own expectation.” It took him more than 70 meetings in 6+ months to convert BigBasket as a client 🚀 10/ They went from handling operations for bigbasket.com in one remote area around Jigani, Bangalore, to now serving them in most of their major cities 🌍 11/ Today, LetsTransport boasts ~₹700 Crores in revenue, 200+ enterprises & more than 15 lakh truck trips monthly 🔥 12/ What’s next? “I'd like to be close to the startup ecosystem. I’ve enjoyed being an operator & an angel investor in 20+ SaaS startups. Nothing is definite, everything is a probability. Let’s see what unfolds” 😄 Sudarshan is a bar-raiser for the Founder’s Circle at GrowthX®. This is a snippet of the incredible story he shared in a closed sitting at the Annual Members Retreat in Goa. It’s an honour to have members like Sudarshan in the fam 💙 PS: cracking revenue is hard. This is why we’re hosting an exclusive revenue-led Founder’s Masterclass in Mumbai on 4th April. Link in the comment ✨

Inc42 and Databricks kicked off their 2-Part series — "Executive Boardroom: Laying The Foundation For Data & AI-Led Growth" series with the roundtable titled "Scaling Safely: Navigating Data Guardianship In The Startup Ecosystem." Held in Bengaluru, the roundtable brought together technology decision-makers and leaders to discuss how startups and digitally advanced organisations are addressing challenges related to data accuracy and reliability, while building future-proof data practices. Here’s a sneak peek, video out soon! Praveen Kumar Kalwagadda of Cashfree Payments, Ankit Choudhary of Shadowfax, Vikas Garikipati of LetsTransport, Sagar Kumar of PayU, Rizurekh Saha of Yellow.ai, Vinay Rai of Netradyne, Ved Antani of BetterPlace, Krithika Muthukrishnan of Scripbox, Shriharsha Prakash of LeadSquared and Abhinav Johri of EY.