Ketan Kapoor's guest appearances

Ketan Kapoor

Outliers

SaaSBOOMi

Manav Garg

Rahul Vohra

Jyoti Bansal

Ryan Hoover

Amit Agarwal

Sebastian Thrun

Camille Ricketts

Rushabh Mehta

Sarah Lacy

Anil Gupta

Balaraman Ravindran

Ravi Venkatesan

Nandan Nilekani

Sandhya Menon

Abhishek Sinha

OwlTail

Hindsight isn’t just a luxury, as many believe. For founders, hindsight or the ability to look back at the events and learn from them with blunt honesty, is priceless. Just ask the second-time founders such as Ketan Kapoor, the co-founder of Mettl, who sold his startup to Mercer after a long, slow burn. Mettl is a SaaS platform for online assessment. “If I start something again, I will not raise money for the first three years, not because I can afford it, but because I can run it that way,” Ketan tells me in this conversation. “The more you can push it out (the funding), the more you can set up a business, which looks solid and sustainable.”There’s too much focus on the ongoing entrepreneurial journeys. Don’t get me wrong. It’s absolutely needed to keep bringing learnings from the journey as it evolves. What needs to be unlocked more is a goldmine of candid insights from founders after they have completed their entrepreneurial journeys. “There are moments in every entrepreneur’s journey when you just want to be alone and want to cry, and not share anything with even your family or co-founders.”This quote from Steve Jobs captures the amazing power of hindsight well:“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”Listen to this conversation with Ketan Kapoor of Mettl to learn from his entrepreneurial journey that offers honest insights about building, failing and finding an exit for founders, employees and investors. Ketan is now preparing to become an entrepreneur again, and is looking to apply all the learnings from the Mettl journey.

Hindsight isn’t just a luxury, as many believe. For founders, hindsight or the ability to look back at the events and learn from them with blunt honesty, is priceless. Just ask the second-time founders such as <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ketankapoor/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ketan Kapoor</a>, the co-founder of Mettl, who <a href="https://www.livemint.com/Companies/u25vvZEAfubnitae9v4JRI/Mercer-acquires-online-assessment-platform-Mettl.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">sold his startup to Mercer</a> after a long, slow burn. Mettl is a SaaS platform for online assessment. “If I start something again, I will not raise money for the first three years, not because I can afford it, but because I can run it that way,” Ketan tells me in this conversation. “The more you can push it out (the funding), the more you can set up a business, which looks solid and sustainable.”There’s too much focus on the ongoing entrepreneurial journeys. Don’t get me wrong. It’s absolutely needed to keep bringing learnings from the journey as it evolves. What needs to be unlocked more is a goldmine of candid insights from founders after they have completed their entrepreneurial journeys. “There are moments in every entrepreneur’s journey when you just want to be alone and want to cry, and not share anything with even your family or co-founders.”This quote from Steve Jobs captures the amazing power of hindsight well:“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”Listen to this conversation with Ketan Kapoor of Mettl to learn from his entrepreneurial journey that offers honest insights about building, failing and finding an exit for founders, employees and investors. Ketan is now preparing to become an entrepreneur again, and is looking to apply all the learnings from the Mettl journey.

Ketan Kapoor of Mettl on connecting the dots looking backwards

So who is the quintessential Indian entrepreneur? This is the question we keep asking while analyzing success and failure of Indian startups. On one hand, large scale platforms such as Flipkart and Ola have high profile founders at the helm, always grabbing the headlines. On the other hand, a bunch of low key, reticent and enterprise focused startups such as Mettl continue to create impact in the niches they serve. When Mercer acquired Mettl few weeks ago for $40 million, it didn’t make splashy headlines. And while you would have read the stories by YourStory and The Ken, there’s always more to learn about these entrepreneurial journeys. And with Outliers, we bring you the stories told as it is from the horse mouth. So here’s the podcast, our 76th, with Ketan Kapoor, Mettl’s founder.

So who is the quintessential Indian entrepreneur? This is the question we keep asking while analyzing success and failure of Indian startups. On one hand, large scale platforms such as Flipkart and Ola have high profile founders at the helm, always grabbing the headlines. On the other hand, a bunch of low key, reticent and enterprise focused startups such as Mettl continue to create impact in the niches they serve. When Mercer acquired Mettl few weeks ago for $40 million, it didn’t make splashy headlines. And while you would have read the stories by YourStory and The Ken, there’s always more to learn about these entrepreneurial journeys. And with Outliers, we bring you the stories told as it is from the horse mouth. So here’s the podcast, our 76th, with Ketan Kapoor, Mettl’s founder.

Ep 76: Mettl’s Ketan Kapoor: ‘I think it is inevitable to be an entrepreneur and not fail’