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The path from Pashmina to Pixels | Raj Kundra @ JLStream
139 Plays4 years ago
Online content creation saw a drastic boom when the pandemic struck. This made content creators spend more hours with their gadgets.
In a candid conversation with Akshay Datt, Raj Kundra, Founder and CEO, JL Stream, shares his journey.
Born and brought up in London, Raj started his entrepreneurial journey at the age of 18. After running multiple businesses, he became an entrepreneur in India. In 2020, he launched JL Stream with a mission to enable social media users to grow their outreach, broadcast their talents, and monetize their content. And within four months it has garnered more than half a million downloads and 150,000 monthly users.
Tune in to this episode to hear Raj speak about how JL Stream is revolutionizing the online content market in India.
Key takeaways:
- How to become an operator founder?
- Monetization strategy.
- Importance of networking.
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Transcript
Introduction of Raj Kundra
00:00:10
Speaker
Hi, I'm Akshay Hi, this is Arab and you are listening to the founder thesis podcast We meet some of the most celebrated sort of founders in the country and we want to learn how to build a unicorn
00:00:25
Speaker
Hi, my name is Raj Kundra. I am the founder, CEO of JL Stream India Private Limited.
00:00:32
Speaker
Imagine this, his father was a Punjabi migrant from Ludhiana who came to the UK and started as a bus conductor. After years of hard work, his father became a middle class businessman in London. He grew up not wanting to join his father's business but to make his own name and by the time he was just 22 years old, he had already earned his first million.
00:00:57
Speaker
Today, after running multiple businesses, he is now an entrepreneur in India and married to one of India's most loved actresses.
Early Life and First Ventures
00:01:06
Speaker
Sounds like a plot of a Bollywood movie? It's actually not. This is the inspiring true story of Raj Kundra.
00:01:14
Speaker
a London-born Indian who actually came back to India for love and adventure. And the adventure that Raj is currently on is a venture called JL Stream that was attempting to disrupt social and video commerce. Here's Raj telling Akshay about his schooling years in the UK.
00:01:34
Speaker
funny enough, in my school from the age of 13 to 18, I was the only Indian in my year. There was a couple of black boys, I was the only brown Indian, and the rest were all British guys. So there was the on-off bit of racism here and there, but nothing that we couldn't tackle. And I think it
00:01:51
Speaker
It's all about standing your ground. So if you came across as the pushover, then you're going to get pushed over. And I think that doesn't matter about your skin color. But yeah, I mean, it was racism, but it wasn't as bad as it probably was in my dad's time. What kind of kid were you? Were you like a studio skater? Were you a hustler, street smart?
00:02:11
Speaker
Yeah, I think I was a bored hustler, to be honest. I remember failing my GCSEs the first time round. What's GCSE? GCSEs over here, I think it's 10th. If I'm not mistaken, yeah, 10th standard. So I failed it the first time round. I did well in the basics, and then I failed on a lot of subjects, which doesn't allow you to go and do your plus, your 12th, your A levels.
00:02:36
Speaker
So I remember my dad being really peeved saying that, you know, I didn't educate myself and I was hoping that you would do well. My sister was serious. She was the only one out of the three of us to get to get a degree. My youngest sister also sort of dropped out of school. I dropped out of college. I wanted to get into business and I wanted to be hardworking. And I said, you know, I said like that, you didn't go out there and study and get a degree and then you've been really hardworking. I want to put it, you know, I want to put those skills to use. Did he agree?
00:03:05
Speaker
I don't know. He wasn't really happy about it. He made me retake my GCSEs. When I retook it, I passed with flying colors. I concentrated better. And then when I went into AA levels, which was the 12th, then I dropped out after 12th finishing, completed 12th and dropped out and said, you know what? I just can't do this education. I want to get into business. Funny enough, I always passed business studies, commerce, maths. I would always pass. But when it came to English, sciences, literature, I would fail those. But I just realized that maybe it's some genetic ability to
00:03:35
Speaker
to understand numbers and understand business. I started business in school. I was selling at the age of 13. My dad would give me loads of pens that he would get from the post office free. So I was selling these pens to my school friends. That was my first entrepreneurial journey.
Pursuit of Business Success
00:03:52
Speaker
It was quite fun. I got the pen for free and sold it for whatever price it was that time. So like what, 17, 18, you quit school to do business. So what was in your mind? What did you want to do?
00:04:04
Speaker
You know what, when I sort of dropped out, I was helping my dad in his, he had a cafeteria. It was a restaurant business that he had that time. So he was running that and we'd have chefs and people, but there'd be times where the chef would sort of call in sick. So dad would take over cooking. There would be times when the waiters didn't come in. So dad would say, okay, take over. I would be carrying these dishes of plates out to the table.
00:04:30
Speaker
I was doing that and then we were washing dishes and then I think it sort of struck me. I said, you know what, I was not made to do this. I know that I'm not made to wash dishes for the rest of my life. I feel I'm here for a bigger purpose. So I told my dad, I said, dad, this is just not for me. If dropping out of school or college means you're going to put me in a restaurant to wash dishes, you know, I just feel that I'm not going to get anywhere in life. So can I help?
00:04:53
Speaker
six months to prove myself. And if I don't succeed, you know what? I promise I'll come back and run the restaurant. He said, you have no choice. If you don't succeed, you will be coming back to run the restaurant. When dad gave me this six months, I sort of started researching and looking on the internet and seeing what people are buying, what people are selling, what industries are out there, sort of self business. Yeah, so early 2000s.
00:05:21
Speaker
Um, so that's when, um, you know, I wasn't really getting much success in terms of what to do as a business. You know, somebody just says, okay, give me six months. I'll do a business, but you've got to know what to do, how to do, where to do. Yeah. And especially at 18, I mean, you have to list about the work. Exactly. And then there was a bit of ego there saying that you're self-made. I want to be self-made as well. So I didn't, I didn't want to take anything from him.
00:05:43
Speaker
Um, so I remember, um, getting a job for two months in airline catering. So in the UK, uh, you know, the food that you get when you travel on flights, they come on trays, which are all painted up. So I worked in a lot in long catering for two months.
00:05:57
Speaker
Working there got me my first credit card because once you have a job, you can apply for a credit card. I remember it had a 2,000 pound limit and I was like pretty good in those days. And then I basically just decided that I was going to fly off. I said, look, if I don't see business happening anywhere soon, I'm going to end up in a cafe washing dishes. Let me at least go.
00:06:17
Speaker
I go and see the world a little bit. So I kind of took it to Dubai first. I was always intrigued by Dubai. So it was one of the first places I traveled to. From Dubai, I took a flight to Kathmandu because a couple of friends told me they're going to be in Kathmandu. I had some friends in India. They said, we're going to Kathmandu. So I said, cool. I'm coming as well.
00:06:37
Speaker
reach Kathmandu. I spent some time there. It was a great holiday. One day whilst going through the bazaar, I realized, I said, you know what? I'm going to be heading back soon. I better let my mama present because she is my only saving grace and trump card. If that really pushes me to this restaurant, I might go to buy some more time with my mom.
00:06:57
Speaker
I remember that a little bit of musk with the mother always works. I remember going to a local shopping street over there and this guy's selling pashmino shawls. So I asked him, what does it do? And then he pulled it through the ring and said, look how soft it is. It's fantastic. And he quoted a price and I said, you know what, this is actually a really good product, especially for a country like the UK, which is always cold.
00:07:21
Speaker
So I started bragging. I said, do you have your own factory? He said, yes. I said, how many do you make? He said, we make about 25,000 shows a month. I said, that's all. What if I need more? He said, yeah, no problem. We can arrange. So I bring my credit card for 2,000 pounds, taking a sample in every color, taking a sample book. And I said, I'll be back. And within a month, I'll place my first order. But you better look on your quantities, because I'm sure I'm going to be buying out pretty much your production.
00:07:49
Speaker
I don't know why I said that and where that came from, but there must have been a lot in my tongue because really it came true. But it wasn't so easy. I remember coming back from Nepal and dad was saying, so how's it going, son? I said, good. He said, you have two months left. I said, yeah, I know, I know. Everything's under control.
00:08:08
Speaker
Those two months I started calling various companies and they would say, who are you? And I'd say, well, I'm Raj, and I set up a company called RK Collections that time. That's the Raj Kundra collections. And they'd say, sorry, we've never heard of you. Is there a website? I'd say, no. What you have, I said I have a product. OK, but we don't just buy off any one of the street. There are hundreds who want to supply us. But I wasn't getting anywhere. None of these business houses are taking over. You were calling like Marks & Spencer's and
00:08:35
Speaker
Yeah, I called everyone. I called Marks & Spencers. I called everyone. All the buying departments. No one took me serious. When you hear an 18-year-old on the other end of the phone, not that you really know his age. So I realized I was running short on funds. There was ego. I didn't want to ask money from my dad. So I took up a part-time chauffeur job because I passed my driving test. I was driving and I was escorting various business people from their residence to the airports.
00:09:01
Speaker
One fine day, the head office of the chauffeur firm says that you've got to pick up from the house the head of Joseph, the buying agent for Joseph, and drop him to the airport. So I thought of this to be a fantastic opportunity. It was Destiny calls. So I literally put my brochure and my pashmina short samples in the back seat, hoping that he would see them and then start talking. Because we were told as chauffeurs, you cannot make conversation unless somebody speaks to you.
00:09:30
Speaker
So I picked him up from his house, got in the car, and lo and behold, he started picking the sample, looking at it, and saying, hey, what is this? It's interesting. I said, oh, sir, this is between a shawl. My uncle has a factory in Nepal. So we are good. And I said, well, we produce. We're selling these everywhere. So he said, you know what? This is actually a fantastic product. Do you mind if I take a sample? And I said, please be my guest. This is my visiting card.
00:09:55
Speaker
And by the time I dropped into the airport, he was literally, you know what, I'm back Sunday, Monday, come and meet. This is my card. Let's talk. I think it's a great product for the UK. So Joseph, a very big retail firm, was one of my first customers in the UK. Joseph was like a clothing? It's a clothing brand. It's a huge clothing brand. Even today, it's a huge clothing brand in the UK. A retail, high street retail designer brand. So Joseph was one of my first customers to buy Pashmina shows and
00:10:23
Speaker
The orders went into thousands and month on month they kept increasing. Finally, I was buying out the whole factory's production. I was one of the first people to import Pashmina shawls in the UK. What was the economics of it like? How much did a shawl cost you? My margins were 100%.
00:10:40
Speaker
It was just crazy. Yeah, I mean, I was picking up something at like $30, selling at $60, and they were selling it out at $200, $300 each. But there was such a perceived value to a Pashmina shawl and the way it was. So the story really worked. And then having Joseph as a customer, it became much easier to sell to others. I went to Belgium. I picked up a market there. I had a friend of mine who was a doctor.
00:11:04
Speaker
He helped the networking at a lot of orders in the Belgium high streets. I supplied a lot of diamond merchants and a lot of their families. We used to have various events that would happen where all the who's who's wives would just come together to pick up the latest collection of pashminas that we had. So we became
00:11:21
Speaker
quite a sizable business and made a lot of networks, a lot of contacts with people that I met. So networking was a big part of my business and growing up. But I just realized after two years of doing this business that every Tom, Dick, and Harry started importing pushminas from Nepal. There were cheap knockoffs. The margins went down from 100% down to 10%. And I just said, it's not worth it anymore. I've done it. I made my first few hundred thousand pounds. I'm good enough to move on now.
Investment Journey and Lessons Learned
00:11:49
Speaker
And Dad was happy. Dad said, well, Dad, you know what? You're in the right time, in the right place, just like me, I guess. And you've done well, so all the best to you. During my visit to Belgium is where I met, I can tell you, the doctor. And he had a lot of contacts that he gave me. So one of them was a very interesting Russian businessman who basically took a liking to me. Because you know the way I dealt and everything, and he said,
00:12:16
Speaker
What are you investing in? What are you doing? And I said, well, I'm looking for the next big thing. He said, well, I'm into exploration and it pays really well. What does he mean by exploration? Like oil and gas? No, metals. He was into metal exploration. So he was working in various countries. So I invested some money with him. I said, you know what? I would love to do something. I know nothing about it. But I've made some money and I'm happy to put it with you because
00:12:42
Speaker
When a billionaire comes to you and says, you know what? I'm doing something. It's interesting. I like you. It's like a blessing in disguise. So doctor said, you know what? You can't go wrong if the guys offered you. It's a great thing. And lo and behold, I think a couple of his explorations that he was doing. And he found me so lucky because the money that I invested with him and obviously he put in a lot of his money. But
00:13:03
Speaker
We struck copper in one of the biggest chilli mines, which he went on to then flip and sell and not himself. That returned me multiple fold money. I mean, it literally my first million dollars I saw from that deal. And then after that, honestly speaking, what is for you when you became a millionaire?
00:13:23
Speaker
I was one of the youngest millionaires in the UK. I was about 22. I wasn't a millionaire, but I had my first million. That was nice. How did that feel? At the age of 22, you're probably worth more than everybody that you know, maybe worth more than your parents also.
00:13:46
Speaker
I mean, dad was really, really proud. But then I think I always tell people the same thing. I say, look, what is entrepreneurship? And it literally is living a few years of your life like most people won't, just so that you can lead the rest of your life like most people can't.
00:14:02
Speaker
So that's a good thing. This is your original thing. This is amazing. Yeah, but I mean, it was something that I really followed. I said, you know, I'm going to work my butt off. My friends were partying. I was cabbing. School uni friends used to be out and weekends and I was working, delivering people and.
00:14:18
Speaker
and then all these shelves and working and this and that. I did lots of part-time jobs in between. So this was beautiful. It gave me enough padding because I realized that it was harder to earn the first 100,000, but to earn the next million was easier. So in life, you realize you just need that little bit of padding. If you get the entry, you get your foot in the door, then the next few steps are easy. It's just climbing, taking that first leap of faith.
00:14:45
Speaker
So then after that, I started investing in multiple businesses. And it's always been a trend of mine. I love startups. I love investing in people. I love investing in something that's new and interesting. I did film distribution. That's how my touch with Bollywood happened. I took a few movies from Bollywood and distributed them in the UK. And this was at the time of Yuva, Yuva released at that time. And there were other movies. So it was at that era.
00:15:11
Speaker
Distribute movies and that became my Bollywood connect. We grew up watching Bollywood films. So for us, we learned Hindi at home. We all spoke with Rabi in English, but we learned Hindi by watching Bollywood films.
00:15:25
Speaker
So yeah, it was interesting. I think what really worked for me was whatever I did, I did with passion. And if I failed in something or if I used it to learn, my mistakes and my failures were my biggest teachers. And that just helped me.
00:15:44
Speaker
And I always tell a lot of people that don't repeat the same mistake, because then you're just foolish. If you're learning from things and you're stepping one step ahead, there is nothing better than failure. I just feel like if you're successful too fast and too soon, you're not going to appreciate where it's come from. And I just feel that failure is important. And honestly, I still fail. Even till today, I set up, I invest in companies and I fail and I fail miserably.
00:16:07
Speaker
it's never repeat of the same mistake. I will, it'll be a new mistake that I've made and it's been something, a new learning. So I think that's an important take home for budding entrepreneurs is do not be disheartened by failure, but just keep working and then building your empire one step at a time and learn from your mistakes. Sir, are you more of an investor founder or an operator founder? Do you get hands-on
00:16:36
Speaker
I get very hands-on. To me, I'm an operator, investor. Even if someone says, can you invest in our company? I will not just put money. I will get hands-on. I'll want to learn about it. She'll put something large. She goes, you invest in businesses, which you know nothing about. I said, when I find the dotted line, I know everything about that business.
00:16:55
Speaker
I could get offered businesses that I know nothing about, but by the time I come to signing the dotted line, I've become self-taught and I feel like I've become a PhD in that. So I will not invest in the business till I've learned about it, even if I don't know anything about it, because I just feel that you weren't born to know everything and anything. So if there's something interesting, you need to learn it. And I think when you learn it, if it interests you and intrigues you, then you know, you dive into it.
00:17:24
Speaker
If you like to hear stories of founders then we have tons of great stories from entrepreneurs who have built billion dollar businesses. Just search for the founder thesis podcast on any audio streaming app like Spotify, Ghana, Apple Podcasts and subscribe to the show.
00:17:46
Speaker
So what are the businesses that work for you? Businesses that worked for me across the part, obviously, the Pashmina business was great. I'd invested into diamonds. We bought and sold precious diamonds from Antwerp to Dubai. Again, it was just a connection. Everything led to something else. When my Pashmina business happened, I met the rush who helped me with the exploration investment. That paid back well. I used that money to buy diamonds from Antwerp, from the best diamond merchants. And I had a lot of Indian friends there.
00:18:14
Speaker
and their wives I used to supply shorts to so they introduced me to the husband and I used to export those to Dubai and sell them there to you know large jewelry companies that would then use them for bigger pieces so the jewelry business that was good the phone business was tricky you know you'd have a good film one weekend and the next weekend you'd have a dud and it didn't do well you'd lose money there but I think I did that passion of just just enjoying Bollywood movies
00:18:39
Speaker
If I look back in the last recent sort of seven to 10 years,
00:18:45
Speaker
I think one of my biggest failures was a company called Best Deal TV. We set up a home shopping channel in which Akshay Kumar and myself and a couple of investors came together. I was trying to recreate QVC, what QVC had done in America. It was so popular even today, but for some reason, home shopping in India just is so taboo. It's all about get slim tablets, Hanuman, Chaleesa product. They never took it seriously, you know, and everyone, I think,
00:19:14
Speaker
in America QVC came first then online shopping whereas in India online shopping really took over fast and home shopping was not really considered cool so the expenses were just so high to run that business that I think collectively all our investors we lost about 100 crores in that company and it just went down we had to you know we had to close it and I know with
00:19:37
Speaker
with Chopra, she always gets very passionate about a business.
Introduction to JL Stream
00:19:40
Speaker
And for her, when you set up something closing is not an option. And I always tell her, you cannot do this. If you want to get into business, you need to know when an elephant is falling off the cliff and when you cannot hold it by the tail. Otherwise, you're going to go down with it.
00:19:52
Speaker
So I think knowing when to cut your losses is a very important factor. It's very difficult. There's a lot of ego play that happens, but you can't keep throwing good money at a bad product. What were you selling on Bastille TV? Like what kind of product? From folks to kitchen products to
00:20:12
Speaker
I mean, anything that was innovative. So home shopping was all about saving time and innovation. So cutting vegetables faster, a pillow that helps you sleep better. There were a lot of research products. We traveled a lot to the international affairs. We used to buy a lot from China. We used to make a lot of stuff in India. So there was a lot of innovation going on.
00:20:34
Speaker
you would only sell to the number of customers watching you on that channel, unlike e-commerce where Amazon, you know, you go to it to buy what you want to buy. So, also small invitational viewing. And I guess, I don't know, it just didn't connect. And unfortunately, the time the business went down was when demonetization happened.
00:20:53
Speaker
Our business just went down overnight. We were doing 10, 20 lakhs a day of revenue and it went down to like 50,000 a day. So it just became unsustainable and we had to pull the plug on it. So that was one of my biggest failures ever, to be honest, in all my years of business.
00:21:11
Speaker
But other than that, I think investments we made, we either broke even or we exited at a decent return. So yeah, I mean, I just, I enjoy it. I mean, today I've now invested and set it up myself after the Chinese ad ban happened in a stream company. I feel
00:21:32
Speaker
And I actually feel this with every company I invest in. That's going to be one of my best deals ever. But manually, the streaming business is huge. There's a huge fomo behind it, a fear of missing out. And we're creating a whole ecosystem of live streaming. So you're going to have matchmaking. You're going to have live one-to-one video chats with people. And especially at lockdown, today, you can't date. You can't meet someone. You can't connect with someone. We provide you that platform where you can
00:21:59
Speaker
Connect with people. We keep a very safe environment where if someone's just being rude or something's just not working for you as a stream or a user, you can kick that person out. When we sort of empower the women with that.
00:22:11
Speaker
Help me understand what is a comparable app? Yeah, so the biggest and the app that was doing close to 1,500 plus crores a year was an app Beagle Live. So Beagle was very big in India. So everyone heard of TikTok. Not many heard of Beagle. Both Chinese apps went down during the Chinese app ban. TikTok was running on advertising revenue. Beagle was running on customer spending, sending gifts to people they like.
00:22:38
Speaker
So today, when you go into your stream, you see a streamer. You might like that person. So you start chatting with them, how you're doing, good. And then you send a virtual gift. So you do an in-app purchase, you buy a road, and you send it to impress her. Thank you for the roads. You get a live shout out. You get happy that you have a minute of fame. People start connecting. Then you can send direct messages and connect with that person, have offline chats with them through the app. So is this like a clean version of OnlyFans?
00:23:07
Speaker
Yeah, I wouldn't like to compare to Onlyfans. Onlyfans has a lot of content on it. Onlyfans has a lot of content on it. We don't do any content. Ours is only live streaming. When the live streaming is over, that's it, it's gone. But yes, I mean, Onlyfans has done well, but it's only done well because of the sex and all the pornography.
00:23:23
Speaker
So we didn't want to get into that space at all. Our live streaming, if any, there's so many community guidelines. If anyone violates it, we turn them off. A lot of apps in the market, live streaming apps that are selling on sex. And we send our regular complaints to the MEITY, Ministry of Communication, and they do a good job of taking them down. So I think where we're using that first mover advantage in India, since the app ban has happened, we're seeing good growth. We only launched in January.
00:23:52
Speaker
It's doing about $100,000 a month of revenue from month one till now. So is it a platform basically for people who already have a following, like a platform for influencers to leverage their following through livestream? So Gen Z, the people that were on TikTok and there were new influencers that want to reach out to their fans, yes.
00:24:15
Speaker
If you set up an account and you put it on your social media that I'm now on jail stream, come and chat with me. It helps, but it's not a prerequisite today. If you're just a good looking person, a nice looking guy, nice looking girl, and you want to chat with someone, you will have a lot of our traffic that's on our platform that will come and see what you have to say.
00:24:34
Speaker
And we have a lot of scheduled lives. I bring on a lot of Bollywood celebrities. I bring on a lot of singers that come and make the evenings very interesting. And the fact that these users get live shout outs from sending gifts really works. People like that.
00:24:49
Speaker
So yeah, the ecosystem that I'm creating on this app, my roadmap is down the line. These influencers will have a system where they'll be able to sell any product they want to also through the app live with cash out happening without coming off my stream. So I can advertise a product and live streaming. So a little bit of what I learned in home shopping will actually come in here.
00:25:09
Speaker
And I can cash out, check out, buy the product. It gets delivered to me without coming off the live stream. So I plan on preparing that towards the year end. But before that, we're in talks with two of the largest dating companies in the world that want to enter India. They bring to the table technology enhancements, 70 million user base plus. So that's going to help us. And that strategic investment is going to help our app go global because
00:25:35
Speaker
Whilst it was made in India, it's deployed worldwide. We have users from across the world that are earning revenue. Today in India, we have 1,000 plus streamers making more than a lakh a month. So it's good. The revenue is really picking up fast for a lot of these streamers.
00:25:53
Speaker
And how does the discovery happen? Like, say, you know, I'm a new user. First time I log on, you know, how do I discover what's happening? What's of my interests and stuff like that? It's there. The minute you log in, you'll see a discovery page where there are lots of people screaming. You can swipe up, you can put a search. You can say, I want to search for people that are interested in yoga. You can fill up a batch home, which basically says, I'm a guy looking for a girl, this age group, these interests.
00:26:19
Speaker
and then it'll pop up all the people that are live and then you can directly have a one-to-one video chat with them live.
00:26:24
Speaker
OK, so it's like one to one and one to many both options are there. OK, so this for me is one of my newest and exciting ventures. I'm wearing the CEO hat, set up this company. We've got a team of about 40 people working under me. And this is what I'm looking at taking to the next level. And in between, we have F&B business that Shilpa and I invested into Bastion Hospitality, one of the most popular celebrity restaurants in Bombay.
00:26:54
Speaker
Okay. So on the DL Stream only, what kind of users and what are the numbers like? Like, you know, how many users like, you know, that monthly active user number? Yeah. So from Jan till now, April in four months, we had half a million downloads. We have about 7,000 to 8,000 daily active users and 150,000 monthly active users.
JL Stream's Global Ambitions
00:27:21
Speaker
So it's still small, but based on that, to be doing more revenue than any of these new short video platform apps are doing, who have 20-30 million users. So with that 100,000 user base, we're already doing $100,000 a month. Wow. And what percentage do you keep? Like, you know, when somebody... We do 50-50 with the streamer.
00:27:43
Speaker
OK, OK. And how will you do the e-commerce build? Will you like tie up with an existing e-commerce player or will you build the whole stack? No, no, we'll tie up. So, for example, if a brand comes to us and says, OK, I'm a makeup brand, can you get one of your influencers to sell? We're going to give you inventory of we have five thousand, just five thousand. So we put that in our system. All the orders go directly. We take a commission. We give the streamer commission. And so the streamer makes money. We make money and the user gets to sell his product using one of our
00:28:13
Speaker
one of our hundreds of influencers that we have. So they get a choice of influencers. And then you can sell live video. Live video streaming sales is the biggest business in China. And I know that it's going to fall down into India as well where people say, you know what, I trust my influencer. I'll buy it if he tells me to.
00:28:31
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Okay. So your competitors here would be a company like say Michu, which is also in a way helping influencers to sell. And there's Bulbul. Bulbul is again video based. They're basically pre-recorded videos that you can buy what they're wearing and what they have. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. They're pre-recorded.
00:28:50
Speaker
We plan to get into pure live streaming FOMO. Once it's gone, it's gone. You start connecting with your favorite streamers, know that they sell some of the best products, know that they come with a limited inventory and knowing that you're having a special offer if you buy through them. So there will be a lot of offers that will be able to negotiate and create because we know that our buying power that in a live stream will go to sell five, 10,000 pieces, for example. Okay. Okay. Got it. Okay. Cool. And like, you know, what is,
00:29:19
Speaker
I mean, the name jali is like a India specific name and you have plans to go global. So how will that happen? Yeah. So that's why it's a jail stream for the international market. And we have two handles. A jail stream for the global market and jali life for India. The jail stands for jali life. But we know that jali is a word is very difficult to pronounce for a foreigner. So they all call it jail stream. We have all the handles jail stream and jali life.
00:29:42
Speaker
But are you like looking at specific countries that you launch first or you let the market dictate like wherever you get more downloads? We started with India. That was the lowest hanging fruit and one of the few celebrities posted for us because they have the whole NRI Indian diaspora worldwide.
00:30:00
Speaker
So we have people from Australia logging in, from Africa, from everywhere where there's Indian NRIs, America, Canada, everywhere. We have a lot of users from all over the world that are sending gifts and a lot of streamers from around the world that are just logging in because anyone, you and me, can just log in, sign up, start streaming, and people can start sending us money and we can make revenue. So we have a payout partner that allows us to payout in over 100 countries. So when you make your money from, you can cash out in that country instantly.
00:30:30
Speaker
Okay, so you know from what I understand the biggest asset which you have is relationships and network which has helped you build your businesses throughout you know right from the age of 18 till today.
Networking and Personal Reflections
00:30:47
Speaker
So you know what's your advice to people like me for example I'm a little bit of an introvert you know I
00:30:54
Speaker
hesitate to go out, put myself out there, build a network. So what's your advice to people like me? Honestly, I really do feel that networking is important. I follow Gary Vee, the really interesting entrepreneur. And I love his videos and his inspiration is great. And he's all about networking. He teaches us that if we network, half our battles won. And I'm living proof that had I not networked the way I did,
00:31:22
Speaker
I don't think I'd be where I am today. So it's very, very important to get out there and to put that foot forward. Being introvert is fine when you're at a home or with people and then you're trying to get comfortable with someone. But when it comes to business, if you have a passion, you have to bite the bait and just go after making your dreams and your goals come true. How do you network? Do you just cold call people or do you just walk up to someone and say, hi, I'm Raj.
00:31:50
Speaker
Yeah, I've done it. I've done it all. It depends. I started with cold calling to try and fill a pashmina shawl right up to introducing someone in the car by him starting conversation saying, I like the pashmina shawl. And then that was it. My entry happened. So you've got to know which piece to play. You've got to play businesses like chess. If you play the right move, then you're going to get the right invite and then you're going to make the right move at that place. So it's very, very important that you create the environment that you need around you.
00:32:20
Speaker
So that, you know, you can make the business happen the way you want it to happen. Otherwise, sitting quiet, watching someone from afar, being a shy fan, it's not going to get you anywhere, you know, it's what it is. Were you a fan of Shilpa before you like... Was I a fan? I always tease, I say, you are watching your movies. She started in the industry very young.
00:32:46
Speaker
Noise gets me for that. She goes, I'm not that old. We're the same age. But yeah, so I love Bollywood. And that's why I got into Bollywood distribution as one of my businesses when I was younger. But yeah, so I saw her work. I saw some of her movies. And she just became huge in the UK when she did that Big Brother stint. I think that's where we met. And that's how we got into it. She was in Big Brother in the UK, is it? In the UK, that's right. The Celebrity Big Brother. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK.
00:33:15
Speaker
And so, you know, if you build one conversation with somebody, say through cold call or you're dropping them to the airport, how does that one conversation lead into a relationship building?
00:33:29
Speaker
It all depends how that conversation goes. I mean, if some conversations just become a headache and you realize that, OK, you started the wrong conversation with the wrong person. But if the person is interested in what you have and you're interested and you've got the right product to offer the guy, then it's just follow up. I mean, you've taken a card. You've got to make that follow up email. You've got to change the pleasantries. And if you have a business card, the best thing is to drop the email to the customer.
00:33:53
Speaker
We had this conversation a few days ago. Do we take it forward? Did you like it? How was it? I hope everything's well. And I think it's important to become friends with the people that you're working with so that you build a connect which is a bit more than just a cold-cut business working relationship. Because in a cold-cut business relationship, it's very easy to
00:34:14
Speaker
to get denied. But when you create a little bond with someone, suddenly, I've seen it work a lot better. When you create that little bond with someone, it goes a long way. So if you ask someone about their family, their son, drop a small gift for their baby, you realize if you touch the right cords and the right pulse, that's it. If you've touched the right cord with someone, it's much easier to have a better relationship. And it's all about relationships. And honestly, I'm not a user-friendly person. For me,
00:34:43
Speaker
I will treat everyone, be it the boy cleaning dishes to the richest man in the world, the same. And some people say that, but I genuinely, I was born and brought up in the UK where there was no such thing as house help. We did everything ourselves. We worked ourselves. We washed our own dishes, cleaned up after ourselves.
00:35:04
Speaker
So the way we were brought up was far different to the way people in India brought up. Honestly, I find them a lot more spoiled. A middle class Indian and a middle class UK citizen, you'd find the Indian much more spoiled than the British guy because it is what it is. They've got too much availability and access to cheap labor. So for me, it's about how you treat someone and how you treat them when no one's watching is also very important.
00:35:28
Speaker
Okay. So, my last question to you, what would you like to be remembered as? You know, what would you like your legacy to be? Wow. Let me ask that one. You know, I think
00:35:43
Speaker
It's really, really important to, when I look at what I would like to leave, if something happens to me tomorrow, what do I leave behind for my family and for people around me? I think it's just got to be the fact that that person was a great, nice person, nice to talk to, pleasant, his motives were genuine, just helpful.
00:36:02
Speaker
And I try to do that. I mean, I'm taking up a lot of work with Shilpa's foundation. I do as much as I can. I've turned vegan. I'm doing my bit towards the community and helping people. So I'm not one of those guys that's there making money, living the life. I don't drink alcohol. I don't eat meat. So for me, I'm very spiritual and then it's a part that I've followed now. So I just want people to remember that this guy was a good guy and
00:36:26
Speaker
And I want to leave a footprint where people can say, it's actually pretty good what he did. He wakes up at 5 a.m. He leads a healthy life, worked out regularly. He was always available. He was one phone call away. And he didn't treat people like shit. And I think that's really important. You've got to really treat
00:36:46
Speaker
people in the right way. I've been to a lot of celebrity, high influencer, big business people's bodies where because you didn't cut, you didn't make the cut, you know, they were sort of just walk past you or just look through you. And I just find that so fake, you know, it's like learn to treat people like people, guys, you know.
00:37:06
Speaker
There you have it, tomorrow you don't. And I've seen a lot of highs and lows. In my last 10 years of living in India, I've seen billionaires come and billionaires go. So I think it's the, if someone's been good to you, you'll remember that always. But if someone's just been an ass, it's like, you know, you got, this is karma pain. Who are your heroes? Sorry, I said that's the last question, but I couldn't resist. My father was one of my biggest heroes because really self-made, you know, from zero to hero. He showed me that it can be done. So
00:37:35
Speaker
We used to watch him do literally everything himself. And him and my mother, both, they really are self-made. If I look in the business field, I love Richard Branson and the way he works. Elon Musk is the kind of guy that I think is pretty cool because of the way he is. He's also very, you know, this is it, it's in your face. And he came up the hard way as well. People that are self-made, I have a lot more respect for self-made people than someone that just got it on a platter and then
00:38:05
Speaker
and tries to live up the life that way. I would advise people to not just sort of, you know, shut shop on India and think, oh, it's difficult, it's politically driven and it's, you know, a lot of rules and regulations. If you cut through the red tapism, there is no better place to do business than anywhere in the world than India.
00:38:37
Speaker
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