Startup Fridays Ep 27: Investments and entrepreneurship are for the long haul, so stay invested and keep 'investing' — Atul Shinghal

Our guest today is Atul Shinghal, founder and CEO of Scripbox, a company that has played an important role in making it easy for people to invest in mutual funds in India. And Scripbox is now evolving into a broader wealth management platform. Shinghal is also co-founder of Probe Information Services, which provides financial information on companies in India. He has a degree in naval architecture from IIT Madras and an MBA from IIM Bangalore. 

(00:00) Startup Fridays introduction

(00:40) Brief bio of Atul Shinghal

(01:20) How Scripbox was started — marrying the combination of investing and the power of digital

(03:52) An old boys gang in a manner of speaking — the three founders of Scripbox

(4:47) About Scripbox, the idea it was started with, and what it has evolved into today

(6:20) The scale of Scripbox’s operations today

(7:15) The first product — just one basket of four funds, for long-term money, based on the analysis that too much choice is counter-productive

(9:44) Seven thousand rupee millionaires who got that way on via Scripbox — with an average growth of 7X; Mantra of ‘stay invested, keep investing’

(10:45) Evolution into broader wealth management platform — ‘one home for all your money’

(12:52) If you have 100 rupees, play with 5 but protect and grow the remaining 95 rupees.

(14:15) The tech that power Scripbox — applied intelligence, but not artificial intelligence.

(16:00) Early challenges of getting Scripbox off the ground

(17:45) Breakthroughs that helped Scripbox grow

(18:25) Advice to the man on the street on approach to investing in an uncertain world

(21:39) Accidental entrepreneur

(22:55) From naval architecture to finance

(23:35) Lessons from building Scripbox — the need for speed, but also patience

(25:33) From just specific mutual funds to a ‘full-stack’ wealth management platform — 4X growth in last 18 months

(26:55) Lessons learnt in transitioning from founder of a small venture to CEO of a bigger company

(28:15) Early influences

(29:42) Going to South Africa

(30:18) Coming back to India

(31:15) Low points and high points — from skipping salaries to customers loving Scripbox

(33:40) Rapid fire questions