The Exchanges

Q It's a pleasure Kunal. You, you have a very diverse background and, you know, somebody like you chose to be, uh, A founder of a company which is impacting so many people in India. I think One of the largest causes. Uh, what, what made you, uh, found Keto? What was the thought, the inspiration to, to build it?

A Well, you know, the thought, uh, behind, uh, this was, uh, I was actually working very closely with a number of NGOs, uh, in the social space, and I found that there were a number of challenges that these NGOs were facing. Uh, fundraising, of course, was one of the challenges. Uh, the other was, how do you, uh, Find new donors. Most of these NGOs were operating offline. And I felt like it would be very powerful if we could somehow build, build a system that could shift these NGOs from the offline fundraising to online. And the idea really was to build a bridge between people that need help and people that can help using technology. I mean, I came across so many people that wanted to help. And wanted to do the right thing and, you know, make a difference in someone's life. Uh, but they didn't know how to go about it. Uh, they were not sure whether the money is reaching the right place. Uh, they were not sure, uh, where to contribute. Uh, so I felt like if you could build, uh, something that was easy to use, uh, that was transparent and where you could really sort of get feedback. In fact, where the money's gone, I felt like that could be something that was powerful. And, uh, I happened to meet Varun Chait and Zaheer at the same time. And, uh, They were thinking about similar ideas. Uh, so we got together and that's how Keto happened. And Keto is actually an abbreviation for key …

AI assessment note: “the idea really was to build a bridge between people that need help and people that can help”

Q And, uh, what are the initial challenges when you faced, when you started Keto? Like, how has the journey been in the last seven years?

A I think one of the biggest challenges, uh, when you start something like Keto is that, uh, there's very few, uh, you know, in India, there were no crowdfunding platforms really. And, uh, it was very sort of difficult to make people understand the potential Uh, you know, people, how investors usually work is that, uh, if something is doing well, then, you know, everybody wants to invest in that area. But to convince them that something that, that is starting off is actually worth investing in is very difficult and challenging. Uh, the other thing is that a lot of people have this mindset that Indians are not charitable. Whereas, uh, we disagreed with that. Uh, our belief is that Indians are actually very charitable. Uh, it's just that we give in very different ways. And if we meet that, uh, something that was streamlined and we bought that online, then you would see a lot more Indians coming forward and doing charity. Uh, the third thing, of course, was, uh, beyond the investors was to Uh, was education. Uh, we had to not only educate people that were donating, but we also had to educate the NGOs that were going to raise the money. Uh, because like I said, most of these NGOs were offline. Uh, they, very few of them had an online presence. Uh, so we had to convince them that if they shifted from offline to online, uh, you know, it could make a big impact in their fundraising or r…

AI assessment note: “I think one of the biggest challenges, uh, when you start something like Keto is”

Q So Kunal, how did being a well-known face across, you know, one-thirty crore Indians help you in starting Keto?

A Well, you know, it, uh, it definitely helps. First of all, like I said, you know, awareness was really important in this case. So to reach out to people becomes so much easier. The second thing is that your accessibility to people that are important, uh, whether they're investors or whether they're NGOs or they're, you know, H and I's, it becomes much easier because I think, uh, you know, as an actor, when you call somebody and say, look, I'm trying to start something, I would like to have a meeting with you. They are, they are far more likely to respond to you than they are to somebody that's You know, not well known. Uh, so I think that's, that, that was a, that was a really important thing for us. I mean, a friend of mine who's an investor described it very, very interestingly. He said that, uh, uh, building a tech company is like bodybuilding. Uh, you know, it takes a lot of effort and hard work, but building a tech company with a celebrity is like bodybuilding on steroids. It just happens a lot quicker.

AI assessment note: “accessibility to people that are important, uh, whether they're investors or whether they're NGOs”

Q And, uh, what are the lessons that, you know, you learned in your long career in acting that you applied to business?

A Oh, well, that's hard, but you know, like I'm saying is that you've got to, uh, the similarities is that you really have to sort of listen to your audience, uh, You know, you can't, you can't say that the audience is wrong. I mean, as an actor, when you do a movie, it releases on Friday, it may fail on Saturday. Uh, and if you turn around and say the audience is stupid, they don't understand this movie, uh, then you, you're not really listening to the audience. You have to understand why that movie didn't work and what you can do to change that. Uh, even as an entrepreneur, you've got to do that. You've got to take feedback from people, not say, oh God, people don't understand this. You've got to understand what people are thinking. And then apply that. And we've done that constantly. We've constantly taken feedback and said, okay, this is not working. How do we change this? How do we make it easier? How do we make it more transparent? How do we incorporate more ideas from people? So you really have to listen to your audience. I think that's, that's really important.

AI assessment note: “the similarities is that you really have to sort of listen to your audience”

Q Kunal, as a businessman, uh, what, what is the mental models or beliefs, you know, you live by?

A I think integrity is a big one, uh, for me. I think, uh, I, I think it's, it's, uh, you know, it is a cutthroat world, but, uh, within that cutthroat world, if you can, you can retain some amount of integrity, I think that's really important. The second is, like I've been saying, is that I've always been drawn to something that, uh, makes a difference, uh, And I think, uh, for me, it's not only about investing time in something, uh, that's going to become a big business, but it's also something, whether it's really impacting people, whether it's really making a difference, I think that's really important to me. So contribution is a important factor. And thirdly, of course, is that, you know, if you're looking to build a huge company, there are people that have trusted you. There are people that have invested in the company. So it's very important that you make sure that, you know, uh, uh, they are making returns as well.

AI assessment note: “I think integrity is a big one, uh, for me.”

Q What, what were the moments in this journey where you felt that, you know, it's becoming very tough. Maybe I should quit. Was there any such moment?

A I mean, there were hurdles, of course, uh, you know, you're running out of money. Uh, you're, you've, when you're starting off, like I said, you know, creating a market, it is very difficult, uh, because, uh, initially it was just me and Varun. So we had to actually, we had no employees and we had nobody else and we didn't have a sales team. Uh, so we had to go personally and meet each and every NGO. Uh, that's how we started, you know, to try to convince them that something like this can work. Uh, for us, uh, fortunately, what really happened is that, uh, Organically, we started getting a lot of traffic because a lot of people that were contributing on the platform were then actually going and telling other people about the platform. So there was no advertising or marketing or, you know, that we had to do in the initial years. It all just sort of grew organically. So it was challenging, but I don't think there was ever a time where we thought to ourselves that, Man, what have we got ourselves into? Uh, you know, maybe, maybe it's the best time to close this and move on to something else. No, that was not something that ever crossed our minds.

AI assessment note: “No, that was not something that ever crossed our minds.”

Q And being a for-profit venture in the social space, what's the business model of Keto like?

A So, uh, right now we work on a fee, uh, but over the last couple of months, we've now moved into a zero percent fee for, uh, for, uh, campaigns that you start on your own. We have another model where a lot, uh, you know, the team gets involved and sets up things for you and advertises for you and all that, that has a certain percentage still involved. Uh, but we are working, we are trying to move to a tip model. Which is that, uh, you know, people when they're leaving the platform can, uh, tip and, uh, uh, if they're happy with what we're doing and if they're happy with what we are creating, then they can, you know, leave a tip behind. So right now we've actually moved, uh, uh, in certain areas to a zero percent platform fee and, uh, moving towards a tipping, uh, tipping sort of system.

AI assessment note: “we work on a fee, uh, but over the last couple of months”

Q And what was more tougher, you know, to get the first break in acting or get the first break in business?

A Well, I think a business was harder, uh, though, you know, there are, I often say there's a lot of similarities between the movies and being an entrepreneur. Uh, one is that you have to be very creative, uh, you know, whether in the movies or to disrupt something as an entrepreneur, you've got to, you have to be creative. It can't happen without creativity. Uh, the second is you've got to really listen to your audience as an actor, as an entrepreneur. Uh, thirdly is that, you know, you've got to have self-belief. Uh, like I said, you know, as an actor, you're facing the camera alone. Every Friday decides whether you're a successful actor or not a successful actor. Uh, as an entrepreneur, you need a lot of self belief because you're backing this idea, which maybe nobody else believes in. Uh, so, uh, I find a lot of commonalities between actually being an entrepreneur and being an actor, but I think getting my first acting break was far simpler than, uh, you know, breaking through as an entrepreneur.

AI assessment note: “Well, I think a business was harder”

Q So, uh, today, can you tell us about the scale? Like how many employees do the team have? How much funding that you have raised and it's a for profit venture. So how do you see, you know, in future giving exit to the stakeholders?

A Well, we've, uh, we've actually, uh, employed more people in the last couple of months. Uh, I know a lot of people are letting go of people, but we've actually employed a lot more people. We have about a 120 people working at Keto right now. And, uh, I feel like, uh, you know, when it comes to giving an exit to investors is, you know, is what you're asking for us. We've just, uh, what we're looking to build is not just, we're building of course, a crowdfunding platform. And I feel like we've just only scratched the surface because, uh, It's only now that there's so much awareness about crowdfunding. Uh, we've just, uh, started going into the small towns in the smaller cities. Uh, up until now, it was mainly the urban center. So we've only scratched the surface. So the idea is to build one of the biggest crowdfunding platforms in the world. That is what we're attempting to do. But besides that, we're also not looking at Keto as just a crowdfunding company. We're also looking at it as a medical solution company, health solution company, building products in that area. Uh, because over the last eight, eight and a half years, we've got so many insights into the medical and health space in the country, uh, that we want to use those insights to create something, to create tools. Uh, and I feel like, uh, especially in a country like India, where the whole medical and health space is s…

AI assessment note: “We have about a 120 people working at Keto right now.”