E130 - Being the CEO of an Indian Public Company w/Five Star Finance’s Rangarajan Krishnan

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Rangarajan Krishanan, CEO of Five Star Finance.

Rangarajan’s persona is a bit beyond the norm on the podcast, as he is not a direct founder nor an investor. Rangarajan is the CEO who joined Five Star Finance as an outsider, but in the 7 years that he has been around he has led the company to a Public Listing on the NSE and is gearing up for a phenomenal run as the CEO of a Public Company in India. His thoughts around starting up, company building, talent & culture are very fascinating in a world of venture funded startups. This conversation is very different from the usual episodes on the show as it displays some very interesting old economy + new economy insights.

Five Star Finance is a MSME lending company with almost 6000 crores in disbursements through a brand led model mostly prevalent in the south of India currently. Interestingly, Five Star holds the unique badge of being the Oldest Unicorn in the country having started almost 34 years back as a traditional business. I chat with Rangarajan on how this journey has unfolded and his learnings along the way. We discuss some very fascinating aspects of company building and lending in FinTech. This mostly revolves around the underwriting, collections and expansion process at Five Star - decoding the business model in depth. Further, we understand how starting up needs to be organic and what alternative ways to blitzscaling, talent curation and founder growth might be. This episode is very interesting to say the least, stick around for some phenomenal insights from the CEO of a Public Company in India! But before we get started, here is a quick word on our sponsor for the episode:

Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - https://strideventures.in/

Hope you liked the 130th Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - Being the CEO of an Indian Public Company!

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