Thread by @AdeshraNikunj

The Indian entrepreneur who bought a Vespa Scooter after selling his company for INR 3000 Crores

An inspiring journey of a patriotic entrepreneur who wants India to prosper through entrepreneurship & lessons to learn from,

A Thread 🧵

Kunal Shah @kunalb11 is undoubtedly an example of how a setback might be a blessing in disguise - not only for the entrepreneur but for the entire industry.

He is the Founder of Freecharge, CRED and has invested in 200+ startups in India.

Born in a Business family, Kunal's family was hit by a huge financial crisis when he was just 16

To support his family he tried his hands at odd businesses like,

-selling Mehndi cones
-CD's
-Tuition classes
-Cyber café

This gave him an early stint into the world of business.

After graduating in Philosophy from Wilson College, Mumbai and dropping out of his MBA he decided to pursue his own path.

At the turn of the millennium, he joined TIS International Inc., a startup BPO as a junior-level programmer.

During this time, he met Sandeep Tandon, an investor in TIS International startup who had come down from USA.

Sandeep saw Kunal's potential, unmatched energy and understanding of the flow of money and quickly promoted him as the new Business Head.

He worked there for a period of 10 years.

In this phase; Kunal with the help of Sandeep, grew the business to a 1200 strong outsourcing team.

During his stint at TIS, he founded his first venture 'PaisaBack' with an aim to commercialize the concept of 'Free'.

PaisaBack provided cashback to customers who purchased any item through their tie-ups with a large number of retailers in India.

The business model was so unique that Paisaback grabbed a lot of attention in a very short time and started making decent revenues in no time.

When Kunal saw that the market was ready for something bigger and full-proof he winded up Paisaback to take the next giant leap.

Freecharge which was launched in August 2010.

Freecharge was his version to take the concept of 'free' to another level.

Sandeep also joined him on board as the co-founder.

On the Freecharge portal users could carry out mobile & DTH recharges/bill payments, & in return would be credited with discount coupons of equal amount absolutely free.

There was no serious tech that was built in Freecharge – everything was like how we Indian’s do it – ‘Jugaad’!

Sequoia Capital was the first investors in Freecharge and Kunal shares a good bond with Shailendra Singh, partner at Sequoia Capital.

After launching Freecharge it was no sunshine and roses for Kunal who was welcomed by severe challenges on his entrepreneurial journey.

Corporates had their mindset against the concept of 'Free' and it was dire straits for him to convince them.

As the model was new, companies were hesitant towards it in the beginning as they thought it would harm their brand.

Kunal navigated all challenges and Freecharge had 10 Million registered users and a thumping 400% year on year growth in 2014.

During the same time Vijay shekhar Sharma launched Paytm with a similar business model of Freecharge but with a better revenue model.

Kunal confess that he often joke with Vijay that I am the chief Innovation Officer at Paytm.

In Freecharge, Kunal offered Macbooks along with offer letters to the candidates to reduce the dropouts.

Kunal started seeing the saturation point for him and also understood that for Freecharge to expand in wider markets he needed a bigger player.

In April 2015, SnapDeal acquired Freecharge for INR 3000 Crores making it one of the largest acquisition deals of that time in India.

During Sale of Freecharge, there was an unclaimed ESOP of around INR 20 Crore, which Kunal could have easily kept with them and made more money.

But kunal decided to distribute it within the team which surprised the team and their investor Sequoia.

After the exit contrary to purchasing cars & having a luxurious lifestyle all he did was to purchase a Vespa Scooter for himself & an apartment in South Bombay for his family!

From 2015-18, he served as the chairperson and advisor to many groups like BCCL, Sequoia and Y Combinator and became an investor in many startups.

In April 2018, Kunal came with his next golden goose CRED!

CRED aims to enable making credit card bills simpler for you and also reward you for paying them on time!

However, more than a rewards application for making credit card payments, CRED is about making a community of credit-responsible customers.

Though many in the industry questions about CRED's business model, CRED today is a unicorn startup with more than $4 Billion in valuation and it seems that sky is the only limit for Kunal and CRED.

Kunal, wants India to prosper & he believes it can only happen through entrepreneurship.

Today he's one of India's largest angel investors with more than 200+ startup investments.

His investment style is unique, receives pitch on whatsapp & commits at next minute.

Kunal is truly an entrepreneur with a difference, he wants to change fortunes by investing in other people’s dreams rather than using all that he has got for himself.

Kunal rejected the offer from @sharktankindia because he says “I invest to pay it forward & help entrepreneurs.

I never negotiate on valuations, Shark Tank’s format doesn’t align with my values so I chose to skip it

He added that I am happy that startups are now part of household conversations because of the show.

But I m worried about people thinking startups are all about raising money

Famous Quotes by Kunal;

- If you fully accept the worst that can ever happen in your journey, fear won’t ever be an obstacle in starting up.

-The Day Indians start celebrating Indian entrepreneur’s over Bollywood celeb’s, our nation would change.

From helping his family to make ends meet at a young age of 16 to helping more than 200+ Indian startups.

Kunal is truly a changemaker and believes in creating a prosperous India developed on the foundations of entrepreneurship.

And that’s it folk’s!

If you have enjoyed this RT the 1st Tweet and give me a follow at @AdeshraNikunj for content on business, founder's & mental growth models.

I've bootstrapped Proptech @clear_deals, acquired 2600+ paid clients, doubled my revenue each year and built my company valued at 5M $