How to Build a 320 Crore Media Company from Scratch - Exact NUMBERS revealed

you know I got a call like after a few days hello shadha where are you I said you know my sister is driving I was in Mumbai that time so he said okay are you ready to hear a news and I said yes tell me then he said oh Mr Tata really liked you and he wants to invest in your story and I was like stop the cast stop the car this video is an MBA master class on making you know Media Company how did he raise money from raata very simple so I said Mr Tata you've gone on record to say this that it still hurts me that in this country where you come from till determines how far you can go right and I want an equal India where everyone has an equal opportunity and I said Mr Tata have lived that for the last eight years every single day where every story should be important and you have to support me invest and support all the entrepreneur and stories and he was like you know because I was like this like you have to like there's no option not

to hey everybody Welcome to yet another episode of OnePlus open conversations today we're going to be talking to sh Sharma shda has been an inspiration of mine because she's been in media for such a long time especially in startup media one of the first known startup media companies in India that covered startups it was the first place I was ever covered and therefore it's very special to my heart but today is going to be a Media Master Class you are going to learn everything from how do you build a media company how much money do you need exactly to the rupee to the last rupee how much money you need how much money can sponsors pay you how do you monetize media whether it's directly through ads or events or subscriptions which are the right ways which are the wrong ways plus we're also going to learn about predictions for the future media's thoughts on content creators and all of that wonderful stuff all in today's episode so stay tuned till the very ending because this is an episode I wouldn't miss so you shouldn't either sh I want start off with a very

simple question how did you get here like what's your story so far what is my story you know honestly I keep thinking about what is my story and uh and maybe I'm not generalizing it but my story is the story of a very middle class India I've talked about a lot that I grew up in Bihar um in a time when it was politically very uh non-stable not safe uh and I grew up in a family of four daughters so somewhere that really shaped me I had to work hard I had to prove that uh you know at that time Dar if you were born as a girl child then Dari is like the like people think oh my God liability and I was told that when I was born then everyone in my family cried my distant relatives so somewhere that sense was there that I have to do something and I don't have to be a liability so maybe my story like it's like you know the ghost behind me has been that liability n independent and somewhere you know and I say biar because when you're a bihari you talk in a certain way in Hindi many so there's a sing song way a bihari way which I'm sure many of your viewers would understand what I'm saying so I was always ridiculed also about that and all these things shaped me in the way that one started your story somewhere for me it was very important that where you come from who you are family should not determine the story cuz we are all special and uh I think if I was treated very specially then this would not have happened and and that shaped uh I feel that's primarily my story do you feel that can be

generalized that today um I mean I noticed this a lot right and I'm afraid to say it in public but I'll say it anyway um do you feel like a little bit of that Strife in your early years struggle is important for Success because I see a lot of people who are coddled today by their parents and all right like we are a little bit the next generation is a little bit spoiled do you feel like at least from your perspective struggle was necessary to get to where you were absolutely Mar you know maybe it's my bias but I have a huge uh enchantment with pain in life you have to experience pain disappointment rejection humiliation uh all those things are the best sounds cliche but they are actually the best teachers because if you're treated very nicely I don't know how will you grow because if you look at this whole uh you know butterfly or whatever anything remarkable there has to be pain and if there's no pain then how are you I get attracted to people who have struggled uh and who have come up on their own and that's why startups I love startups yeah is that the was

that the original story behind your story like how did that happen like I know you were at CNBC for a while how did that how did the CNBC thing happen like I told you that bihari never left me and I went to media and somewhere I thought in media uh people celebrate success all of us celebrate success and we all want to learn from success watch success to Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous and all those things you know there's an aspirational value we are an aspirational country but somewhere I just you know and I used to really meet a lot of people and they all had a story and one day I remember very clearly and on preneur called me very successful big name uh but not relatively big name in the scheme of things for a prime time uh and he told me and you know like he called me and he said oh who do you think you are you're in CNBC and this and that and was slota he had an IPO and a bigger IPO had happened and and he had tears and to me that was a very big surprise because he's one of the most confident people you'll meet him and you'll be like wow like and I don't want to name him and for him his story was so personal his Venture was so personal it was his journey and that made me realize that for everyone for all of us our story is so important and we need that voice we need to tell our stories and somewhere uh you know I started going to I Bombay I used to meet people young people I always you know I think that if you have to be relevant then you need to keep talking to very young people and and startups was a word that I heard in 2008 and uh they wanted to tell their stories and uh when I asked that let's do these stories at scale that time it couldn't happen so I started your story so um CNBC to your

story you've told us that it was this one you know story that really triggered it but what's a big shift in your story going from like a small company from just somebody writing stories about like from a Blog to the Juggernaut that it became when I became 20 years old right what was a big shift for you thank you for saying that and I think I don't why I felt it was Juggernaut right because every story I'd consume about startups everything that I was learning everything about zomato this that it felt like you were you w't settling right you were like in this never settled attitude where you like I want to cover every single founder uh every single new founder who's raised money and I was like that is something I can learn from so I want to know if from your perspective what is the shift how did you go from like just a Blog to now relevant no thank you Von uh you're being kind like in my mind I think that we are very very small and we've done one and a half lakh stories so far that's not small but I just think that there like if you ask me in my mind and I can tell you since 15 years if you'll see me 15 years back I spoke the same thing I'm I have spoken the same thing for 15 years that India is a country of over a billion people and stories need to be told and in my mind everyone told me it's a Blog it will not work don't do it it's an NGO uh you shouldn't do it and somewhere the more I heard no no this shouldn't shouldn't some of the VCS I knew that time because I was working in CNBC and I called you could do it in WordPress and blogger write it over there it's your fancy it's your hobby do it because this is not going to work this is uh and you'll get bored and there's no story here and startups what is that and see I'm talking about 2008 this uh is long time back because today people will say okay what but 2008 was a very different context and the more I heard that this is an NGO this will not work so somewhere for me it was not a media company or anything it was like somewhere my pain or my need for validation and being sexy these stories will not work why and someone had told me this is BNI category and I was like what is BNI so B ad everything so maybe I wouldn't and in my mind it was always very big it a delusional I always think like you know today also if you ask me I just think that I wish I had a lot of money because your story should be in every town Village and City to tell everyone's story because it's not like you know we all feel good no like we all need that encouragement I don't see it as media I see it as an encouraging platform it should just encourage everyone who's trying to do something so yeah somewhere having so if I had to tell people who are in unsexy uncool non-scalable NGO sort of category is that it's all in the mind like you have to think it's big and you think your big shift was the fact that you thought it was very big but the reality of what people were telling you was very different so it became about I've got to prove everybody wrong and therefore that started resulting in you putting effort into your story and that growing do you feel that you would you can attribute cuz I'm trying to find I know life is a series of you know a lot of random things right I'm trying to find one instance that really powered you through there are two

three very simple things V that kept me going I remember I had written about an entrepreneur who was an army guy and he left and he had started something and he cried like you know that like this means so much to me and for me every day imagine what I was doing writing 5 10 stories of entrepreneurs of people doing something validation every day if you're getting that kind of a high then that is a big thing mean from the fact that the your supporters even though the minority at that point was just vocal about it absolutely and the second thing was I think somewhere my business uh context because I was working before and it I didn't jump into it was that I remember first Sun Micro Systems used to be there which got sold to Oracle and I remember this very clearly 2008 end bakish used to be there and they said oh we need startups in our program and that gave me that I still remember the deal he said 25,000 rupees I said no give me and if you can get me 100 start and I said I'll get you 200 you give me a lakh rupees and uh enrolled for the program because it was a free program then I thought somewhere PES sh it was it has been just experiment based on that stories have to be

told but yeah big moment if you ask me getting investment like unfortunately investment yes along with how did that happen I know ran at that point was not a fan of media oh yeah in fact he told me that media and I don't get so how do you get the meeting withan if I'm a young girl let's say 21 years old I want to get into media uh and I need to raise money right and I want to meet somebody like ratan Tata what do I need to have like what how many views how do I get an intro with him you know this is the question which I think you should cut this into a module because I have got thousands of people reaching out to say can you connect me to Mr Tata this video is an MBA master class on making you know Media Company how did you raise money from rata you know so step by step very simple so I had got money just got money from kalari Capital vanani colola so she had all her companies present uh to Mr Tata and uh I remember I still remember it was 2015 and he had flown himself from Mumbai and come to Bangalore and I know that he and you know I was seeing that companies were presenting they all had slides and decks and you know Market sizing and all those words which are very important right time and it was proper presentation and I noticed that while he was listening to everyone he was dozing off because he was tired and and uh and he's old so then I asked that Mr Tata would you like a cup of tea or coffee and he said yes please and then but I knew also that my time I was not you know your story number one company all the important more funded companies were presenting I was last in the line and I didn't even have a presentation to be honest then it was like okay the meeting is over but Von a night before that I had not slept and you know the law of attraction secret book I had said Mr Tata has invested in my company and I swear I'm going on record to say whole night I said excitement Mr Tata has invested in my company I swear on God I did that and I was like oh my meeting is not going to happen not and I was like no still in that crazy moment it is going to happen it is so then when I had given T and said oh she sh she runs your story then he asked me out of politeness or whatever so I said Mr Tata you have to give me one minute because it was ending the meeting and my meeting was not happening so I said Mr Tata you have said this that it still hurts me and you've gone on record to say this that it still hurts me that in this country where you come from or what you know where you are from still determines how far you can go right like if you're from a rich family or whatever and I want an equal India where everyone has an equal opportunity and I said Mr Tata have lived that for the last 8 years every single day where every story should be important and you have to support me invest and support all the entrepreneurs and stories and he was like you know because I was like this like you have to like there's no option not to then he smiled and then he was like then he said um so he said media and I don't get along I said Mr Tata you and I will get along because the vision is this and he started laughing and then I heard from his team that uh yeah he'll put in money and somewhere that's what I'm saying that you know somewhere the honesty confidence and just the Purity you know you can't like sorry to say the word but you can't your way into doing these kind of things you have to have and I was like thinking that day I said okay the Law of Attraction really works you know I got a call like after a few days hello shadha where are you I said you know my sister is driving I was in Mumbai that time for a meeting I'm on the road so he said okay are you ready to hear a news and I said yes tell me then he said oh Mr Tata really liked you and he wants to invest in your story and I was like oh I told my sister like stop the car and uh and it was very I said listen very thankful and I think also the purpose maybe he related also to the purpose to support and I remember that day I was so emotional I called my father because I hadn't spoken to him after my mother's death for many years and I told him Papa uh you know that's the joke all of you should hear is that I called him and this was very emotional I thought this is a moment for me to call because I called him and I said uh Papa Mr Tata ran Tata is investing in your story then he says hm and then of course that's the sign of validation from Indian Dad yeah H but again the Indian dad he says H but what's the big deal he has invested I read in the newspaper he's investing in every company he's invested in this this okay but then he said okay good but you know so to answer your question it's sometimes not sometimes I think mostly it is preparation everyday doing the same work manifesting I believe getting lucky in between like five people would have said no oh listen everyone said no yeah but I also have to call out I have more investors I have aniola Kari Capital she's been phenomenal um uh 314 qualcom Ventures and you see B endowment fund which is r& t and UC Berkeley had tied up so Mr Tata uh you know the fund the collaboration also invested uh in

the company but shha if you were starting like a media company today right now everything's changed when you started I think we had maybe a handful of media companies serious ones today it seems like you know everyone has a YouTube channel everyone has this it feels like it's it feels like a crazy world now if you were giving advice to an 18 19 year old to start a media company today because this podcast by the way everything that I'm doing here is about the future it's like I Tred to do one or two questions about the past and I'm like okay if you were to rebuild it but 2024 and Beyond how would that look how would that work so I'd love to know from you what would you do differently today like AI is there it seems a little bit scary I know you have you know your perspective on journalism has changed over the last decade fire away first I would tell an 18 19 year old think 10 times before starting a media company uh because Media company is all businesses starting up anything is very hard in India it becomes doubly hard uh but media company because for India because you know if you're starting today and I think in last 15 years relatively it is becoming better and better because if you look at people who've created categories companies that have created categories in this space they you need money we don't come from a social security background and while we hear oh uh you know there's ample of capital for good entrepreneurs and all that I think mostly entrepreneur much money though if you're starting a media company today what's the minimum amount of capital you would raise I would say that today because it's not media but it's also the distribution and today it's increasingly hard when I started in 2008 there was I listen if there was anyone who was covering startup in 2008 startup as a word if you searched on Google was not there when it came to Indian media at all so then for me it was a very that audience that Target that Community was very distinct you found something that nobody else was tackling and you said this is a gap yes and you went after but let's say I found a gap today I'm talking about let's say an 18 19y old kid found a gap today but Von today I just also want to call out finding a gap today increasingly is much harder like them new territory finding you know I know everyone is a YouTuber today everyone is a podcaster today everyone is covering every possible category it's imploded in a way so that's why to build a brand and to stand out in the crowd you will need consistency to do a shoot people demand a certain sort of a view production quality the experience which an audience today expects or a viewer expects is also

different so give me a specific number 50 lakhs 75 lakhs a CR just do some rough math see I'm a very bootstrap mentality person so I would say at least you have Z you'll be able to learn something and you think I mean obviously people who come from wealthy backgrounds that should not be hard to raise from friends and family but otherwise if you come from a tier 2 tier three background this would be something You' raise venture capital for or Angel investment for Angel investment and what kind of Angel Investors would you look for I would say people who been in this space people who understand from Media or ancillary because today media also what do we mean by media could mean today even a gaming company anyone who has a distribution right anyone who has some sort of a content today I would say so many VCS are today Media company name a category everyone is a media company and I think media has become like I don't know a category where media is not a play today and if you don't build a media arm you die yeah you have to you have to be talking know there's so much of cacophony of everyone talking something or the other you have to stand out so today breaking from that noise and establishing yourself is much harder than it was 15 years back got it so let me

summarize a step so far find a gap raise 50 lakhs to a CR what's the next step who do you hire one of course if you can find co-founders who believe and who can come with no cost uh on Equity then get them how do you find them in media especially do you go to journalist who've been who you think can graduate to co-founder level or do you find people completely outside of Journalism I think you know that question I would say would be second question the first question would be of someone who's interested because to me you know imaginative people who with execution skills and they could be across today see people who are doing some great content and distribution are not necessarily they like they would be Finance professionals like and today we living in that world you could be a great chef skin doctor with a very nice Beauty distribution or a beauty these things so find someone who is interested in the space and the sort of media that you're creating someone who comes but I'm of course saying that there is an advantage to having certain sort of experience and understanding of the space that you're entering in because this is such a fluid space today like media like I every day think about media like because it's getting so dis intermediated right like earlier when I grew up I had NDTV right like English TV you read Times of India the print and TV by far were the definition of media and there were certain anchors and then there were certain reporters whom you read and you know watched and that it was one way of distribution like w or limited distribution date if I am today interested in finance content or any you know stock market I can search and there might be some YouTuber who will give me far better input than a media company right so that to me is an interesting thing and that's why to start in the space would require a lot of thinking in terms of Target care audience content distribution expertise what you bringing to it and today more often they're not relationship and Network all those things become very important if you're starting a media company okay

let's say you found a co-founder your best friend like this girl 20 years old sitting you know in aabad has found a co-founder and they found a gap and they've raised 50 lakhs to a CR what's the next step then you have to produce the content and the biggest thing I would say the only to me and again it's my bias the only and the biggest thing you require in this business is stamina right like stamina is very important and consistency so you have to like for me when I started your story I used to write every day write yeah 2008 9 10 how how much would you write like five 10 stories a day you write five stories a day I'm not a writer neither AI or generative Ai and we should talk about that is how that is disrupting for me it was like meet someone I love you I like you I see your honesty because it's about encouragement right so 510 and I wouldn't sleep right every day and I had someone in jabalpur who used to I used to give him 3,000 to begin with and he used to upload it and I remember the site used to be jumla software but every day Sunday Saturday Sunday consistency so brand every day you have to do that so I would say that if you find someone and then start having that stamina to start writing every day because it takes time to you know there's this amazing analogy I believe in that it takes uh drop drop to One Day become an ocean the last piece of this how do you

make money of this how are you monetizing what are your unit economics and what should these people learn from it you know I also think about it me say it's a it's the toughest Journey you know sometimes I think that the VCS and the people and the experts who had told me that you should have done an NGO then I should have listened to them because it is tough to make money in Media monetizing let's be clear as of now I think media businesses across not just in India across the world and more so in India because of the pricing and everything is very hard very tough and that's why somewhere you have to build the hustle Mo thing of how do you innovate on the revenue so there are two three things which your story did and I think I feel proud about that because we run a profitable company we've run like eight years I bootstrapped and it was profitable and yes when I raised money for a couple of years it was not again it was profitable but last year I have to say we not profitable hopefully this year again we will be so is that we said that to me every user we started positioning our audience very differently and these are entrepreneurs these are business owners these are people who grow and then we started talking to only people who would be interested in talking to this community how would you talk to them would you email them first would you meet them at events I would like you know big host and just find where they are and be where they are in fact uh and then those are things that we don't talk these are very practical things you have to go meet and sell yourself because they're not going to be coming to you emails they will get a lot and they'll not be responding to you so you have to tap into your network and start meeting them so initially one meets them then you have to deliver you have to perform and then they start giving you more money but I would say we more of a B2B when it comes to the revenue part of it is that uh it was you know doing certain sort of an understanding I remember one company was coming entering India in the cloud space then how many Cloud how many startups are using Cloud what is their spent giving that kind of a research doing round taes doing uh you know research papers doing branded content series on or educational series on certain topics so that's where we started initially making money then of course events Tex Parks now it's 14 years very early on Tex Parks became a property uh where people were coming because I think I would still say like I feel proud about Tex Parks because wonderful events like actually I feel of all the media events in India textbox is the best I also can say that I will I'm very critical vun about everything that we do but I just think that text park somewhere is good yeah I'm telling you as an audience member unated that is pretty good right but today I know I'm sure the sponsors pay a lot of money but let's say when you did the first text Parks which was so many years ago I still remember it very clearly it was in 2010 and uh the money we made was uh 5 lakh rupees interesting from your title sponsor yeah Microsoft was the sponsor and Kanan Partners a VC fund was SP sponsored and Mumbai Angels had given a little bit of money so I clearly remember all three of them and how does it happen you how many meetings does it take for you to get five laks from them so Kanan Partners I had a friend so I pushed him and asked him and of course uh so that's what you have to hustle your way Microsoft uh I still remember the person there was Girish josi uh I had to do a lot of uh meetings uh but they were they used to run a program called Microsoft bits Park and they wanted to uh you know get on board a lot of startups so it was very targeted and relevant for them so they also supported it interesting

and what do you think about subscriptions i' I've been seeing a lot of media companies go sub the subscription route now and I've seen large media companies really bet the company on it I'm not a big believer personally right because I mean I've seen some of I do know there is some evidence in favor I know in the US there's some companies that are doing subscription well some media companies in India though I just feel like my behavior is like I don't pay for subscriptions too much even if it's good quality content but I'd love to know your thoughts on it you know we don't pay for software what we were discussing we don't like to pay we'll pay for a movie maybe to go to a cinema Hall we'll pay for one time is fine yeah we'll pay for a rock concert show or we'll pay for we do pay we have the paying power but we don't pay for content and especially if it is not you know if content like we do in your story which is not Sensational we have over anchored on positive standing with people who want to have a question there so you're saying overtly Sensational content drives subscription listen I have a very strong view that nothing drives subscription like but maybe maybe you would have a certain set of audience who will be intelligent uh people with a certain worldview so maybe you'll find your tribe so maybe there will be a certain at scale subscription in India still has to be proven we have okay I also have to say this on record we have a subscription uh platform called cap table uh where we have some very fantastic journalists they write content one story a day uh and we have but that's a part of the overall if I start betting on it uh then that would not be it because I somehow personally if you ask me I'm not a fan of subscription I feel good content should be available and there should be people who uh subsidize for it or pay for it you think in a decade this might change in a targeted way yes for example if I am very interested in learning about for example I'm valuations or uh fundraising or certain you know or something about fintech or something about you know it could be any subject then having some very specialized content and paying like substack right in us where people started newsletters and and they had subscribers now I don't know how much it has scaled or not scale but audience was paying for it and generally we look at us for all these things so I think in India maybe for certain sort of content they would be a certain set of people who pay but if you're thinking of a very scalable you're thinking like 100 million no one's yoube subscribe to YouTube premium we are all hooked on to YouTube but I wonder what's the number yeah so I

want to show you something okay this is a very interesting piece of content it steps up to what you just told me let me just open this I did a reel recently I've been doing lots of reels like this Disney just unve this robot that's got an actual personality unlike what Boston Dynamics or Tesla produces this one seems like people are more likely to interact with it sort of like people think none of that is real it's all generated of AI so we've managed to find tut the model to do text uh that it's sort of right side me it's not perfect yet we've got we use a tool called hen to do the video and audio we have our own stack to kind of you know clone our audio I feel we're getting to the point where generative AI can be used to write a bunch of content especially the less investiga journalism you need to do to get a piece of content the more likely it is to be disrupted by AI I know that you're doing some gen stuff I love to know what it is and how you think the future because this is all about the future this podcast especially right how's it going to play out in your opinion you know one is that one has to be very open because I just think that this space is only going to keep getting disrupted it has I would say with the creators with the YouTube with the podcast with the internet you know so last two three years and with covid like just see how the space is getting disrupted the media so many media companies large media companies are now uh also struggling right so one that it is going to get disrupted second is that I think generative AI the biggest disruption in any space with AI would be in media space in content space and of course uh with this kind of a content if you're doing something informational uh or something which is like you know where I can learn or pick or uh do then there I think there'll be a lot of influence uh of uh this we also in your story we call it nucleus AI we writing a lot of stories like you have your own AI intern yes we have a team in fact very smart people from I Madras who are working experimenting and doing some cool stuff because we also you know as you said one has to be uh relevant and uh so uh one is working on that we're having said all that I still feel that there is going to be in the new world the good thing isot Cinemas better overall so now even in a theater you start getting good movies with the regional Cinemas coming with the disruption that has happened with OTS in some way I have to give credit that a lot of people and I love Manoj vajpai people like that got a voice they became more Superstar than we you know what we saw of these people preot world so that disruption happened because of the platform so the quality and the content became better I think with generative AI of course there'll be a lot of disruption a lot of mundane Works press release writing informational content I also think that it's also going to be a great world because it will also lead to creative brains and uh to human imaginations to do different kinds of content and I think that imagination realm of that I still feel AI is what you feed into it and they give that right so it's machine learning the whatever you're feeding uh them but the creative part of it uh what you how you interact how you think of the narrative yes that I think will get very specialized and I hope we will all be pushed to do a better job to create better content to think of better stories how should a journalist think about this you know that's a very interesting question I feel that the way we grew up with journalists and the way we have journalism and the world now I think it's changing a lot because like I don't know the definition of journalist is also changing right like who is a journalist I'm talking about somebody who's been through there are schools for this right I've been through journalism School I've done this for a few years I've got a set process I follow the process to the te and now I see these bunch of YouTubers going out and you know just saying whatever they want that's the world so you have to adapt and you have to adjust live this world and you have to plan for prepare yourself for this world yeah and

what do they think about AI like in the sense if AI is there and it's writing the simple stories do you feel journalism should move more towards investigative journalism cuz digging out information is not something AI can do yet I think you I think AI is a great uh tool for journalists because now you can research and put some uh search and you can get all sort of information you know your research time reduces so that also gives you time to imagine to think to reflect and to come up with stories which are very incisive so not necessarily investigative it could also be very you know New Perspective new insight something that I have not heard something that makes me think and to do that someone has to be thinking like you know some of the things which have remained Eternal it's like that

McDonald's narrative right McDonald's is not a food company it's a real estate company that was like that's a perspective shift and I know lots of Indian companies where when you talk to the founders like you're thinking about my company this way because the media has told you this but actually I'm thinking about my company this way and for me those are very insightful I feel like journalism move to that but that requires you speaking to the founders yes and you know the other thing I also feel is that like for my company myself I just never thought of your story as a media company in fact to be honest with you vun I always thought that the labeling was very siloing your story to Media because how do you say that we are a media company I always thought that you know I wanted to create a new word and hopefully one day I will is that it's a community platform if you know like to me if I had to look at my last 15 years of Journey I said we've been played a very crucial role in ecosystem building like we started talking about startups in 2008 9 10 11 12 blah you know it imploded after 12 13 14 or whatever 15 16 whatever so how but it was more about talking about people and that was it a media play or was it an ecosystem platform Community play right so the definition also of media the definition of L and if you make a lot of the money from events then technically media is just one of the things you do you saw one shift okay you saw the shift of

audience behavior from desktops because I remember when that story came out about us I was using it on the desktop me too then it moved to mobile phones then you probably saw a little bit of tablets in and now you have these you know foldables that are all over the place so and for me personally it's like 7 is 5 ratio I like reading from this and now you have VR AR like newer platforms it feels like audience Behavior has changed formats is one thing and I'm sure you're adapting how uh over time with to those formats but what are other audience shifts you've seen like what is something that you know for sure audience Behavior has changed over the last decade in this and it's like you're definitive about you know many things uh with due humility attention span has completely gone like today like everyone's everyone who grew up with this desktop era move to the mobile era yeah in the desktop era we had more attention yeah of course you could read a story or you could like you know like at least you know I have a theory around this it's a wild Theory it could be wrong but I'll tell you anyway I think the amount of attention you can pay to something is directly proportional to the screen size it's weird I have a very large monitor I have multiple monitors at home so the largest one if I'm reading something or I'm watching something I pay far more attention if I'm on this just because the screen size is much larger I pay more attention I had a small phone before this okay really tiny phone before this and there I only just watch shorts so I understand platforms are also changing like a YouTube is also saying I'll do short video and all that but I feel it's somewhere to do with the realistate I never thought about it but it could be that today I just think that you know to answer your question in terms of media and content creation today I see all the investors as content creators I see entrepreneurs as Founders media companies as content creator so who is not creating content and when you have so many people talking about for example fundraising everyone is talking about fundraising how to stay motivated then you keep on say then you need motivation by not watching sometimes any of this so see Supply demand change is causing audience attention spans to reduce that's a definitive Behavior change you've seen so does that reflect in the stories you right and yes and it also should reflect and must reflect in terms of you

know again this is which it will require a lot of thinking and creativities in terms of a minute may do minute May how do you deliver like you know you were also talking about this right just before this is that now in that short attention span how do you hook the audience how do you get them to listen to you be loyal to you because you know going back to the earlier question if to 20 18 year old is starting a media company today getting audience is right maybe with that 50 lakh one two crores you'll be able to do that but then to get them to be hooked on to you to be able to get them to come to you every day or maybe every week or every hour or whatever that is where a lot of uh you know a lot of thinking will be required because that behavior has changed any other shift you see

Facebook LinkedIn is where now I think so saying you can't be loyal to any platforms it's increasingly becoming hard to be loyal to any uh platforms I would say if you're asking about audience second I would say that the audience has become extremely more vocal and demanding they will tell you what they like and don't like they don't like so they're not going to be submissive or just passively consume you they're very actively consuming and they have very active Loop of giving feedback do you feel that with companies at least a media company like yours when the audience says something bad it affects you oh my God met to everyone used to tell me oh my God like oh she's so emotional oh she's not she's so sensitive oh she's not a good leader oh she's very U emotional because I would cry at the drop of the Hat I would get so Disturbed I wouldn't sleep and you know it's not just Media company I think everyone goes through this process and you have to go through this process again coming back to pain like sometimes you feel oh my God it's so unfair like you know I always thought that uh you know there's a Hindi song and you wouldn't have heard all your audience wouldn't have heard there's a very nice song saying I was like thinking that you know you're loving all the entrepreneurs telling everyone's story everyone will be like so happy and encouraging and supporting but there was so much of negative criticism that oh this is a PR platform this is a mouthpiece this is like a paid platform this is this oh she's dumb they don't understand they don't know the right journalism they're not critical so sometimes just being encouraging in this country has been the hardest job because if you are encouraging your positive then you are dumb if you're critical you are negative or you're P I see that in the comments all the time there'll be one person in the comments who's just critical because he's like I'll get likes of this I'll get views of this but I'll tell you one thing I think with startups it doesn't take a genius to say this is going to fail it's obvious right like you raised 5 million 99% of the time you're going to fail the stats say this person is going to fail by definition they're trying something insane so when a media company says look

these guys failed I called it a year ago that to me is the easy thing to do I feel yeah it sounds smart right for you to poke holes in something that exists because just is it's like there'll be 10 people trying to do something and obviously it's going to fail I feel encouraging them is harder and startups are so fragile like Sam mman has this weird piece about co-working spaces I don't know if you've ever read this he says that don't go to a co-working space because if you have a crazy idea and ideas like Snapchat were crazy ideas like oh you'll send a picture and it'll disappear in a minute in a co-working space other people tell you no don't do this they'll be like it's a stupid idea so you will change your mind about stupid ideas so the best ideas that come out in isolation or you just don't care about what people think in the early days yes so I feel like even the smallest piece of encouragement from a media company is a big deal you know I can hug you right now I genuinely love you for that because I agree to this like you know I left my job to do this I could have easily had a salaried job and had a point of view because one of the easiest thing we all can have and we all are born I think with it is a point of view a negative point of view is the easiest point of view I'll

tell you the saddest part of this I have a young audience they're like 18 to 24 right sometimes I speak to them and make it as an exercise right I'm like I need to get feedback and the kids nowadays say because scud we seea fraud I'm like no where did you hear that like see the news that's the thing no if you say something nuanced if you put out five pages about something people will compress it to one line and the entire sagas that have happened with some of the founders in the last few months people have just come away thinking this entire industry is fraud I hate that because now you discourage Young Smart kids from trying hard problem absolutely ABS which is part of the game right writing or talking about someone else is a responsibility and it's a responsibility to that business company entrepreneur to so many more people because you are shaping opinions you are influencing people to think in a certain way like edtech not whole edtech industry is a fraud edtech today you know coming from bead I am where I am because I got education because if I didn't get education with my background with my family thing I wouldn't reach anywhere to me I think the education is the biggest thing and there's still so many nooks and corners of the country now brushing the whole Tech space and laughing about it is ridiculous things have become efficient things have become faster things have become better but yes can it create more impact can it do better and are they bad actors in any industry in any space and again I would not say bad actors I would say with that sort of money flowing there was IR responsibility in many places but for that five people like you're saying can't shape the narrative based on those five absolutely it's a responsibility people should take more responsibility for writing stories about other people yes and of course highlight the truth like but today for me if you ask me 15 years I have also anchored on supporting The Underdogs and they're trying and more often than not if you meet young entrepreneurs you know they have such a junun in them to make a difference yeah okay so I have

another set of questions is a little controversial but I think it's important for us to you know get through this because I'm not a finance infu I'm financially idiot but I saw some of the finance influences and some of the media companies did you see that narrative shape up did you see the entire thing happening yeah and also the rule that came right so sebbi came in and they made a rule about Finance influencers I'm also a little uneducated about this so I'll just give a brief that you know some of the finance influence so there are two kinds of finance influencers my understanding of this there is a you know uh stock tips person who will on a telegram group charge 50 rupees and tell you buy this stock yeah and then there's people like Finance with sharan right who will just come do some comedy on YouTube and say hey this is how mutual funds work I feel I saw a very interesting bait and switch happened where I and one side definitely needs punishment and sebi went after that side pretty hard but I feel I saw old media really come after you know the these new age finance influencers and they went after the wrong kind of Finance influencers largest ones yeah so I know all these large creators they went after have started doing the most basic they've diluted themselves to the point of being a fortune cookie but I know the media went after them when they should have went after the stock tips guys and they put them both in the same bucket my personal belief is I think media and content creators are in a way competitive my understanding right so what is your understanding of this do

you feel like old media is looking at content creators and thinking these are different I know some people like you are saying hey you know we should it's all the same but how do you think of this like again I would not say old media versus the content creators anything anyone who's disrupting will always create a certain sort of a negative sort you know a negative backlash I think yes Financial products because people are paying should they should be responsibility to it but I don't know I wouldn't like to comment I just think that all of us need to be little open and overall like you're saying right the space has to grow content space needs to grow and have money and good content and many content creators they can be in media they can be on YouTube they can be wherever that so you see no difference don't I don't see a difference and we shouldn't see a difference because at the end of the day an 18yearold or a 20 or a 40 or a 70y old wants to get authentic real information content and value for their time whoever is providing them my viewpoint as well right I personally think if all the old media companies just started a YouTube channel and were serious about it this is my personal like I truly believe this and just did obviously adapted to the YouTube format a little bit played a little more short form I think they would actually win right I think it's just I'm surprised that and they'll make sure that then in that way that people like us also win because some like the brand and Brands already know that okay this I pay an influencer and then this you know platforms like mine we are no man's land because when it comes to you know there have been regulations in this space Also what do you mean like in the sense like for companies which had you know if you have investment from outside the country and all that then you know you can't like and a certain portion and whatever so print and TV has a lot of recognition in the country and for digital media platforms the definition itself is so fluid so Lucid that it like you can be an aggregator you could write about politics even if you're not writing about politics you're are a digital media how are you in digital like I just think that you know if you're writing current affairs or uh politics or then you this so the definition is also so unclear still in my mind because a gaming company as I said is also a media company uh or any so for that matter I would say a Creator today is also a media company in itself because if a Creator is monetizing and talking about certain stuff then they're also Media company or they're not a company so what is the definition I think that is getting completely shifted and changed and I think that needs to evolve yeah and I saw I've seen some of

these channels right some of the people who are old media who are going New Media it's so simple it's like I feel like if I just spoke to them for an hour and just told them you don't do thumbnails like that because the thing is in Old media you build a reputation at Le in business with being very serious you can't translate super seriousness to YouTube even if you want to have serious content the packaging needs to be fun so I feel like some of those if they fix I really truly think old media because they also come with the brand you know I really want now talking to you one idea came to my mind is that why I don't know if there I'm sure there would be but I love to create a forum of like a body like an industry body or a industry body again is an old word but sort of a group of creators New Media and old media together which represents overall who are invested in the space growing and not looking at their own boundaries because this is such a space where people are just competing with each other and there's no genuine collaboration and also feel like old media doesn't understand that see having a brand like say being called something your story or whatever means sure you might not have that crazy acceleration that You' have having a name right let's say Rahul or whoever on YouTube but also you have longevity you've been around for 15 years I know lots of old Medias who've been media companies who've been around 10 15 years in the YouTube space average lifespan is 3 years people say seven I don't believe that I think it's 3 to four years and after there's Maybe you can name them on like two three people who like people like T who've really been relevant more than that but I think people forget that sure they make more money in the short term but just the end of their career after that then they'll have to go back and do it's almost like they to restart their life from scratch and I've seen so many these creators after the 3 four year cycle because now I'm I've hit 30 right I've seen people who have now done this for four five years become irrelevant and have got hooked on to drugs or who are just like who are trying but it's not working you know what a loss of identity that is yeah because your name was associated with the company it's fine I mean it's still hard but fine the company shut down you can move on to the next thing but when your names gone to like zero views it's really taxing like the other side is very bad so I feel they could use with a little bit of guidance from old media where old media tells them fine this is fine build a brand right and I feel like old media could learn from New Media where new media is like package it differently that should be collaborative rather than competitive and I just I'm so surprised it's comparative yeah I you know I'm surprised and I'm also disappointed because somewhere I just feel that we like you know I've really seen that you grow much faster if you collaborate and genuinely collaborate but somewhere people like me had to do it on our own because it was a complete write off from media companies like I always wanted as a startup entrepreneur I should be profiled like I'm just saying to that level right I like I hit the check boss the so-called checkboard entrepreneur woman entrepreneur blah in a difficult space is writing I've never heard an article in any Media company about me like a profiling of an entrepreneur uh so and that's interesting and if I were this thing that as a media I would support say that listen she's managed to do and doesn't have a 50y old or 100 year old Legacy company so that's very small example imagine creators today like what you're talking about like people like us all of us should be just supp I'll tell you the math is so it's so strange okay I'll tell you why I know that the new creators they're all young they're like 24 25 they would love to be featured in a money control or your story or whatever right for me it was like a dream of mine to be featured in one of these so I feel like with money if I give you money I lose some money if I have 10 Rupees and I give you 5 rupes I lose 5 rupees with influence with reach I don't lose anything if I get you here and I have 100,000 people see it I lose nothing right and it's the same for media old media they lose nothing in fact if you write about a Creator you gain more so I don't understand the competiveness at all it just feels like it makes perfect business sense for both sides one person gets the influencer gets credibility these people get reach it feels like a match made in heaven it's it's odd that egos have come in the way or I don't know what it is that has comeing the way but I think that can be changed yeah it requires somebody to make the body like you said yeah it has to and somewhere it will happen it's also nent so people are all figuring out and now with AI everyone you know the whole thing what you're saying being relevant for everyone is chasing relevancy you know like just how do you remain relevant how do you spend money is difficult in the space so it also becomes far more complicated right because everyone is figuring out the revenue the pie you know how much am I getting who is getting because for an old media it would be a Creator is taking away the money which idly they would have got or for a Creator then the challenge becomes that like you have to constantly perform constantly keep producing as a one person rather than have a team so no I agree so let's do two hot takes right first thing is what is the longevity secret of your story you've

been around for 15 years very few companies who've been around that long what's secret if you to say it in like three lines I have a take on this I think it's the events face to face in the relationships you agree with that I would agree with that paranoia yeah and constantly being written off I think that is a big driver like every day I wake up and I know people are expecting that this will shut down isn't there a lot of anxiety I felt that cuz I've run companies right it's crazy especially as your Runway starts sticking away butterflies inside the stomach every day but also forces you to do your best work yeah next

subscription models I know you know a UPI is crazy right like i g i Google pay for everything yeah me too so I think subscriptions are going to be big according to a lot of people but you don't believe it to be true what's the solution what's the fix to this I know you've spoken a little bit about it before but I would like your thought anyway if there was a hypothetical word where subscriptions worked what is that word you know tokenizing it to 5 rupes 10 Rupees 15 rupes 20 rupes frictionless where like for example I'll tell you what I pay for I paid earlier for grammarly uh because it you know it's for India they had a different pricing and you could pay and uh so if one can create like if in my mind the friction to pay is not there and I'm getting something which is very high value then it will work yeah I have a thought I thought about making Tex Park subscription what a lovely thought you should just be with me then all my 15 years of anxiety of Elite Card the your story card or something like that where maybe you've tied up with five hotels or 10 hotels or something I know some entrepreneurs are trying this Hampton in the US there's a company that does this I know of saman is doing it with offline in India you have a card you already have the brand behind Tex Parks you're like hey the card gets you into Tex parks for free plus here are five cafes we've tied up with here are five co-working spaces youve got benefit and anyone with a card you have an app to meet other people with a card to be honest that solves the co-founder problem because you get to meet people in private spaces in person and Y uh VW work and all the other co-working spaces in India don't actually have that where you can meet other people and you know off them on a platform and you also meet them at events at Tech parks that might work as subscription I'm done I'll do it done crazy let's try it see what is there to lose I think there's a lot to gain I think if you want to convert media to subscription maybe it's not the article itself content piece itself maybe that has to be free but it could be the network like you said you're not a media company it's a lot more yeah it's a network it's an ecosystem yeah and people want to meet people increasingly we want to meet relevant you know like I somebody asked me what is one takeaway you'll give to people who come to text Parx I said effectively Network that's interesting yeah would you've given me a billion dollar idea from maybe babyon I'll become a unicorn no I think it's the brand above all and this is like you would have tried it at some point anyway

so ladies and gentlemen that was shha Sharma and thank you so much for being here one of the things one of the rituals we have on this podcast because I wanted to give something back I think people take an hour two hours of somebody else's time and this is probably exhausting for you for free for granted but we don't do that here so I have a small gift from you this is from OnePlus side this is the brand new OnePlus open this is yours their Flagship now I'm going to use it at text box yeah you can so what are you going to do with it I am going to tell them that I got it over here and I'll maybe ask them question and whoever answers a great question I'll give them this nice this is our community phone then interesting it's a beautiful packaging though yeah it's very nice no yeah they've done it well I like this and it's you like the screen side and stuff so ladies and gentlemen

that was shha Sharma and I hope you enjoyed this I hope this gave you like a Media Master Class how do you go 0 to1 being an entrepreneur in media how do you stay relevant for 15 years what are the kind of business models available uh how should you find co-founders how much money do you need companies pay you how to do events we had it all in this podcast thank you so much for being on bye