Visionary entrepreneur Vivek Bajaj outlined the success mantra for building a cash positive and flourishing consumer internet business at the Digital Success Summit V3.0. He began by showcasing the growth achieved by Zerodha, one of the pioneering brands in its space, while delving deeper into his own brand STOCKEDGE along with the fundamental philosophies that drive him and the brand alike.
The three pillars of any successful consumer internet business, as per Vivek Bajaj, are the following:
Vision– A futuristic vision and the ability to anticipate future trends in the space is essential.
Trust– According to Vivek Bajaj, trust is the cornerstone of any consumer-facing business. Trust is what is built between the consumer and the business and it is what retains the former. It is also indispensable between companies and their employees and also in the product that is being offered.
Survival– Any consumer internet business should have the survival chops and a plan in place to ride out the rough months. He shared his own experiences of not receiving funding and instead choosing to continue working with the resources that he had, thereby surviving the rough times and putting the business into growth mode.
Coming to the Secret Sauce, it is defined by the Personality of the Business. This is further defined by the following aspects:
Opportunity– The available market opportunity in the segment and also for scalability and growth.
People– Who are the people working for the consumer internet business?
Product– What is the product and what are its USPs?
Audience– What is the kind of audience that the business is catering to?
Amidst this, knowing one’s USP or edge, as he defined it, is highly essential and is something that most people cannot summon instantly. That is where the secret sauce lies.
He also talked of how a good business requires good referrals in order to land the right people who have to possess leadership qualities, while being empowered to develop the same as well.
Building up a good network, across virtual and physical channels is something that helps land good and skilled people for any consumer internet business.
Companies should not only emphasize upon the top leadership but employees at every point in the chain. He also emphasized upon limitless thinking as one of the key components of this secret sauce, while talking about the need to continually challenge oneself.
He challenged himself to gradually open up and connect with others through the internet, in spite of being an introvert who was previously into trading.
He has now built up a successful consumer facing business in the form of STOCKEDGE. He also outlined the clear role of Kayanat or Destiny in the entire process and how it only helps those entities or people who help themselves.
Hence, businesses should retain razor-sharp focus on the customer while building or discovering their edge, pursuing all opportunities, and continually persevering in their respective fields.
For the Audience part of the equation, Vivek Bajaj broke it down into three aspects namely customer focus and finding those consumers who become change agents for the company.
He also talked about the cost of customer acquisition (CAC) which has to be understood carefully in order to make things work. Building the ideal funnel is the next stage of the process.
He also talked about the importance of building an ecosystem for the business, diversifying it organically, and making it more accessible to a broader/wider customer spectrum.
There should be a firm grasp over unit economics while working out any exclusive advantage that a company has. Ecosystems are indispensable for B2C (business to consumer) models according to him.
These ingredients contribute towards the secret sauce for building up a profitable and growing consumer internet business.
Full coverage of the session by Vivek Bajaj at Digital Success Summit V3.0 2022