Prime Venture Partners Podcast

About Prime Venture Partners Podcast

A podcast for entrepreneurs who are looking to build & grow their startups. Avoid common traps & learn uncommon strategies & tactics from makers & doers of startup ecosystem. Prime Ventures is a early-stage venture fund which focuses on startups that not only need capital but also require mentoring to transform them into disruptive companies. We share a passion for working closely with entrepreneurs and enjoy sharing their journey in a high-frequency, interactive and fun environment.Read more about us at http://primevp.in

Publisher

Prime Venture Partners: Early Stage VC Fund

Category

business · education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

21 Nov 2019

Latest episode

12 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

198 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   12 Oct 2026

   ₹10,000 Crores Into Restaurants. Why Do 80% Fail? | The Hotshare F&B Investment Playbook

   What makes a restaurant worth backing when 80% of them fail? Hotshare, an F&B investment platform that backs restaurant businesses at the outlet level, evaluated 41 brands in its first year and invested in just three. So what made those three worth backing? For Lavanya, Co-founder of Hotshare, the answer is not just great food, a packed dining room or a strong brand. She wants proof that the outlet itself works. That means profitability. Clean operating data. Healthy unit economics. Repeat demand. Tight execution. And a clear reason to believe the same economics can hold when the business opens its next location. In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Jerome Manuel sits down with Lavanya to understand how Hotshare decides which restaurant businesses are ready for capital, why traditional venture frameworks do not always fit F&B, and what founders need to prove before asking someone else to fund outlet #2. 00:00 Introduction to Lavanya and Hotshare 03:35 How Hotshare evaluates F&B brands 10:03 Capital flowing into India’s F&B sector 15:32 Hotshare’s “missing middle” thesis 22:57 How Hotshare thinks about outlet-level returns 30:16 The numbers behind a healthy restaurant 34:02 Common mistakes restaurant founders make 38:21 Market research and the data gap in F&B 43:19 Profitability and CapEx benchmarks 53:06 Can hospitality become an investable asset class? 59:12 Red flags and green flags Hotshare watches for 1:01:38 Rapid fire: discipline vs talent, food vs unit economics 1:10:16 BeyondBurg founder Anas joins the conversation 1:13:07 Why Hotshare invested in BeyondBurg 1:28:29 Restaurant recommendations from Lavanya and Anas Hotshare does not fund first outlets. Lavanya wants to see at least one profitable outlet, backed by operating data, signed financials and ongoing MIS, before considering the next one. She also gets specific about the economics, from COGS, EBITDA and rent to profitability and CapEx recovery, and why a strong month matters far less than the trajectory of the business. The conversation also gets into Hotshare’s “missing middle” thesis: many restaurants need ₹50 lakh to ₹5 crore to expand, an amount that can fall between informal funding and traditional institutional capital. Lavanya explains why outlet-level cash generation and yield can offer a different way to think about returns in F&B. Then BeyondBurg co-founder Mohammed Anas joins the conversation. BeyondBurg started in 2017 as a four-seat kiosk selling around 40 to 50 burgers a day. At the time of the podcast, it was doing roughly 3,000 burgers a day and preparing to open its sixth location. Lavanya and Anas talk about what Hotshare saw in the business, from disciplined unit economics and operating data to a focused product, strong systems and a hospitality culture that could hold up as the brand expanded. For F&B founders thinking about raising capital and investors trying to understand what makes a restaurant worth backing, this is a detailed look at how those decisions are actually made. Connect with Lavanya Jayashankar LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lavanyajayashankar (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lavanyajayashankar) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mowglikima/ (https://www.instagram.com/mowglikima/) X: https://x.com/LavsJS (https://x.com/LavsJS) Follow Jerome Manuel X (Twitter):https://x.com/JeromeAndManuel (https://x.com/JeromeAndManuel) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeromermanuel (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeromermanuel) Read the transcript for the entire podcast here: https://bit.ly/Hotshare (https://bit.ly/Hotshare) About Prime Venture Partners Prime Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm backing exceptional founders building category-defining technology companies across SaaS, fintech, AI, healthcare, consumer internet and enterprise software. Learn more: (https://www.primevp.in/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)Prime Venture Partners (https://www.primevp.in/?utm_source=chatgpt.com) Follow Prime Venture Partners: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2780448/admin/dashboard/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/2780448/admin/dashboard/) X (Twitter): https://x.com/Primevp_in (https://x.com/Primevp_in) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/primevp_in/ (https://www.instagram.com/primevp_in/) Learn more about: Hotshare: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hotshare.in/ (https://www.instagram.com/hotshare.in/) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hotshare/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/hotshare/) BeyondBurg: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beyondburginc/?hl=en (https://www.instagram.com/beyondburginc/?hl=en) #F&BInvestment #Entrepreneurship

2. 

   28 Sept 2026

   From Puma to one8 X Agilitas: The Ganguly x Kohli Partnership

   How was Puma India built, how did Virat Kohli’s one8 come about, and what is Agilitas trying to build in India’s sportswear market? Abhishek Ganguly spent 17 years at Puma, joining when the brand was virtually unknown in India and helping build it into the country’s largest sportswear brand. Puma India went on to cross ₹2,000 crore in revenue, ahead of Nike and Adidas combined in India. Then, after nearly two decades in the industry, Abhishek chose to start again. Today, as Co-founder & CEO of Agilitas, he is pursuing a much bigger idea: can a sports brand from India compete with the best in the world? In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Amit Somani speaks with Abhishek about the journey from Puma to Agilitas and one8, how Indian consumers have changed over the last two decades, why past success can become a disadvantage, and what it takes to build a brand people genuinely care about. Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 00:59 Building Puma India From Scratch 05:29 How the Indian Consumer Has Evolved 12:06 Staying Close to the Consumer 16:36 Why Consumers Don’t Need More Products 18:33 “Made in India, Unfinished on Purpose” 21:19 Why Start Agilitas? 24:20 The Risk of Past Success 25:12 “Disruptors Don’t Disrupt Again” 28:16 Building With Virat Kohli 32:09 Why India Needs a Global Sports Brand 34:16 Why Virat Kohli Backed Agilitas 36:45 Building a Brand From India 37:32 Virat Kohli Rejected 17 Prototypes 39:28 The Future of one8 41:35 Advice for Entrepreneurs A major thread in the conversation is Abhishek’s long-standing relationship with Virat Kohli. He goes back to 2016, when he proposed that Virat should build a brand of his own rather than remain only a brand ambassador. That idea became one8. Years later, when Abhishek left Puma to start Agilitas, Virat became one of the company’s early believers, investing in the business and merging one8 with Agilitas. The conversation also explores why Abhishek believes Indian consumers are evolving too quickly for old global playbooks, why founders need to stay close to the consumer, and why experience can sometimes become baggage. His own reminder to himself is simple: “Disruptors don’t disrupt again.” At the heart of Agilitas is a larger ambition: to build a sports brand from India that can compete with the best in the world, not on price, but on product, performance and brand. Connect with Abhishek Ganguly LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/abhishekganguly (https://in.linkedin.com/in/abhishekganguly) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abhishekganguly/?hl=en (https://www.instagram.com/abhishekganguly/?hl=en) X: https://x.com/gangulyabhishek (https://x.com/gangulyabhishek) Follow Amit Somani X (Twitter): https://x.com/amitsomani?lang=en (https://x.com/amitsomani?lang=en) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thesomani/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thesomani/) Read the transcript for the entire podcast here: https://bit.ly/Abhishek-Ganguly-Agilitas (https://bit.ly/Abhishek-Ganguly-Agilitas) About Prime Venture Partners Prime Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm backing exceptional founders building category-defining technology companies across SaaS, fintech, AI, healthcare, consumer internet, and enterprise software. Learn more: (https://www.primevp.in/)Prime Venture Partners (https://www.primevp.in/) Follow Prime Venture Partners: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2780448/admin/dashboard/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/2780448/admin/dashboard/) X (Twitter): https://x.com/Primevp_in (https://x.com/Primevp_in) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/primevp_in/ (https://www.instagram.com/primevp_in/) Learn more about Agilitas Website: https://agilitas.com/ (https://agilitas.com/) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/agilitas-sport/home/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/agilitas-sport/home/) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agilitas_sports/?hl=en (https://www.instagram.com/agilitas_sports/?hl=en) #SportsEntrepreneurship #BrandBuilding

3. 

   15 Sept 2026

   From an IIT Bombay Lab to a ₹1,000 Crore IPO | The SEDEMAC Deep-Tech Story

   Jerome Manuel interviews Professor Shashikanth Suryanarayanan about SEDEMAC's journey from an IIT Bombay lab to a ₹1,000 crore IPO, highlighting deep-tech innovation and market creation.

Who has been a guest on Prime Venture Partners Podcast

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Shashikanth Suryanarayanan
• Ankur Sachdeva
• Subrata Mitra
• Piyush Shah
• Alon Waks

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Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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