The Neon Show
Hi, I am your host Siddhartha! I have been an entrepreneur from 2012-2017 building two products AddoDoc and Babygogo. After selling my company to SHEROES, I and my partner Nansi decided to start up again. But we felt unequipped in our skillset in 2018 to build a large company. We had known 0-1 journey from our startups but lacked the experience of building 1-10 journeys.
Hence was born the Neon Show (Earlier 100x Entrepreneur) to learn from founders and investors, the mindset to scale yourself and your company. This quest still keeps us excited even after 5 years and doing 200+ episodes.
We welcome you to our journey to understand what goes behind building a super successful company. Every episode is done with a very selfish motive, that I and Nansi should come out as a better entrepreneur and professional after absorbing the learnings.
The Neon Show
Why Stripe Paid $150M For a Young Indian Startup | Saurya Prakash Sinha | Recko
Recko's acquisition by Stripe is one of India's biggest B2B exits.
It's a great headline. But headlines don't tell the full story. They capture one final outcome not the numerous obstacles faced.
In this episode, Saurya Prakash Sinha, co-founder of Recko, tells us what really happened behind the scenes.
From the early days when no one was buying, no VC was funding, and they had just $500 left in the bank to building a product Stripe couldn't ignore.
Saurya also shares hard-won lessons about product-market fit, customer validation, and why usage matters more than ARR in early-stage B2B.
Tune in if you want to learn about the full story behind the headlines.
0:00 - Trailer
1:01 - Why Stripe emailed 2 founders in Bengaluru
4:34 - How Recko discovered its core problem
9:34 - What IF customers and investors reject?
12:33 - How to Build with zero validation?
14:18 - Solving what the Big Four couldn’t at Myntra
17:37 - What to expect when building Products in Finance?
19:46 - Bought for the Product, Team or Scale?
21:53 - “Customer voice is the loudest in the room”
25:28 - Why VCs didn’t “get” Recko
28:27 - How to raise when investors follow success playbooks?
30:36 - Why build products to compete with the Best?
33:18 - The First cheque and first customer at Pingsafe
36:45 - How to manage Acquisitions before making them public?
41:02 - How Pricing is led during Buyouts?
42:36 - The culture of Writing at Stripe
44:08 - Why do companies Acquire?
49:16 - Why ARR at early stage is not the right metric?
52:26 - How to find what value your product really adds?
56:38 - Why $100M+ acquisitions are rare?
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India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it.
This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India.
What is Neon Fund?
We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before.
Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon.
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Check us out on:
Website: https://neon.fund/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/
Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww
Connect with Siddhartha on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/
Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7
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This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.