Abhishek Pinninti: Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of Gidget Spot. Today we have another fellow founder with us, ⁓ SIT who is building salts. A very interesting brand I would say that I've come across and let us hear his story of building salts. Hey SIT, how are you doing man?

Syd: Thank you so much for having me today.

Abhishek Pinninti: Yes, tell us about your story and what made you to build salts and oil salts.

Syd: Okay so, salts. I'll just give a little backtrack on how we actually started this. until 2024, September, for a very long time, me and my co-founder, we were both based in the US. We are originally chefs. And we were leading a Michelin-starred restaurant across Europe and across the US for a very long time.

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Syd: And ⁓ we felt that, you know, long hours, 16 hours a day, know, in hospitality is really common, specifically when you are, you know, when you're at a scale and you have to represent a certain standard, supposedly say the kind of standards that we were supposed to maintain being, you know, the head pastry chef as myself and my co-founder being the head chef of the restaurant. So there are certain things that have to be done and, know, those are only delivered during those strict hours. You have to give them like a lot of time. So a lot of hospitality fellows would resonate with this, that burnout is real and a lot is demanded of you. During those time, were only heavily reliant also given the whole American culture. We were heavily dependent on caffeinated drinks and coffee shots, specifically my co-founder.

Abhishek Pinninti: Mm. Yeah.

Syd: because coffee was her go-to thing. mean, lot of people would relate to that. mean, yeah. And again, it's going to wrap the hydration factor. You don't really know what you're putting inside your body and how it's going to affect you in long term. So that led us to having jitters and constantly being dependent on excessive coffee. and lot of caffeinated drinks, supposedly say Coke or probably say Yerba Mate or a lot of other things like say iced iced teas or chai latte is all those things and even for myself because I sorry ⁓ yeah yeah that's that's super trending right no but again high high matcha me actually there is not a lot of caffeine but there is caffeine but the concentration is not as high as coffee so ⁓

Abhishek Pinninti: these marches which are trending.

Syd: And myself, I definitely try to workout every day. I'll probably go for a run. I used to like depend on a lot of pre-workout I used to take. And even pre-workouts out there, the one that I used was like really, really high on caffeine. So, you know, that led me to having severe headaches, which I was assuming was migraine, but lucky enough, it was not migraine. And also at such a age, having migraine is like, you know, a big no. you can't really come across such a thing. So cutting out short, we got ourselves tested, me and my co-founder, you know, during different times, obviously, and the major imbalance was sodium, that you're lacking sodium, you're lacking minerals, and also you're heavily consuming caffeine, and that is just not right. That is why you're having these jitters, and when you're not consuming it, you're having, you're shaky, you're not able to focus right. So... ⁓ The doctor suggested like a saline solution like hey man you should just you know consume a saline solution but us being Indians we are like okay this is something super bland and we can't salt water and you know that is the moment we took ourselves to the bar and we were like okay let's just whip up some mocktails with heavy salt balance and then you know add some flavor to it because again flavor is our top priority. Being Indians we nothing

Abhishek Pinninti: Thanks. Yeah.

Syd: that is not flavorsome, we would not come back to it even if it's medication, even if it is something else, if it doesn't taste good, it doesn't stick to you. That is the moment it clicked. if this is us who is facing this and a lot of other people would, you know, relate to it too. And then we were, you know, doing a research across the Indian diaspora, across the US landscape. Obviously America has like a lot of products that you can consume, but we felt that something like this if we are able to curate something specifically for India because when we were doing our research only there was ORS, was Electrol, there was Prolite and then there was Fastenup but none of them are delivering the right electrolyte ratio that you can consume and you can help aid your performance and also if you want to just consume something on the healthier end which was not there in the market. So we were like, okay, let's build this, let's come back to India. Let's, you know, we can obviously go back anytime. can, we always, we can always rely on our jobs. We can fall back on it. But if we have something, something in our head, you know, putting it out there, know, curating something from your mind, it is something that is super unique. you know, life doesn't really give you that kind of opportunity every now and then. you know, might as well take a shot at it. Yeah.

Abhishek Pinninti: when I saw you know Indian wellness market is overcrowded I would say with proteins and multivitamins. How are you trying to you penetrate this particular problem solving into the market and what is that particular you know brand message you're trying to take into the market.

Syd: Yeah. For sure. Okay, great. So again, we're not a protein brand altogether. And again, at the same time, we're not a multi-vitamin, ⁓ like a pill that you pop and you you forget about your worries. We're not that either. So ⁓ we are currently just focused on hydration as a segment, which is undertapped and underserved obviously, given ⁓ we see that new players are entering this space very like...

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah. Hmm.

Syd: so rapidly now because again this space will also take off. So at this point of time we are at a junction where protein was 10 years ago but as you know the globalization has happened and the friction and the the gap is reducing what took supposedly say I'll take my own example I am 28 right now turning 29 I started working out when I was 17 like straight out of you know 12th standard and That is the moment there was a massive taboo around protein, you only take protein like only when you know protein was not something that was an everyday thing for anyone Right, our parents, even fellow ⁓ students or know college going people, nobody really understood what essentially how protein is important but now you see everything is protein, protein lassi, protein chass, protein chocolate, protein everything, protein is everywhere and protein, where come from? Yeah, you're right. I mean, where is it coming from, right? We only have so much of cattle. We have only so much of dairy products and in India as a whole is heavily dependent on dairy products like say, Dahi, say, Chhaas, say, Ghee, Butter, Paneer, Milk and every kind of goddamn milk, right? So you see and protein is whey. Whey is a byproduct of milk, any kind of dairy product.

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah. Yeah. Mmm.

Syd: So what I'm trying to say is that at the junction where protein was, protein took 15 goddamn years to come where it is today. It is not going to be the same with hydration. That's what I'm saying because again, ⁓ bigger players supposedly say ⁓ Gatorade. We have been consuming Gatorade since we were kids. But what is Gatorade? Gatorade is associated with what? Hydration. And it's a sports nutrition drink, not an everyday person's wellness kind of a drink or a ritual. you would associate it with like say when you are when we used to when I was a kid I mean we used to like it's associated when we used to go play football because we used to have all those cool tumblers that we used to get so I feel ⁓ the category that we are in that is pretty underserved but yes a lot of new players are entering and you would see a few winners coming out in the next few years out of this category

Abhishek Pinninti: for sure I think. Awareness should be done right now.

Syd: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Education is a key aspect. Again, same, similarly as 14, everything, everything is not...

Abhishek Pinninti: So I have seen a bold claim from you guys calling it as zero nonsense. ⁓ Can you take us deep into that? What is that common nonsense you see in the hydration or the supplement industry?

Syd: Okay, yeah for sure. ⁓ I would want to say a lot of existing products, they've got a lot of fillers, a lot of sugars and when you look at key electrolytes that you need. It should just be a sole blend of sodium, potassium, magnesium. mean, anyone can look that up and these are the main electrolytes that you need. But how we differentiate from lot of other brands or other consumer brands or existing products is that we are high on sodium. One, again, all of our batches are lab tested. Second, we're not adding any kind of fillers or any kind of caking agents which you would see or anything on my label of my product. is not something that you would not understand. Let's put it that way. If you would pick up a product in today's day, you would look at the label and you would see there a lot of things which you would not understand because they are under the FSSAI code kind of thing. Like you would say INS 200. I'm just making it up. INS 2211001. Right? So all of those things are not included in our product. It's a product that is very natural. even the flavor it extracts are all from dehydrated fruits you would see in it. So even if you I would take an example supposedly say you are consuming our watermelon flavor. So you would see even the color is coming from beetroot powder you would see tiny beetroot specks floating in the water. The watermelon flavor is coming naturally from dehydrating watermelon and then could come curating a fruit powder out of it. Yeah. So we are like, we were obsessed with what we are making. Again, the chefs inside us, have to be, it has to be a perfect product. You know what I mean? I mean, I would say a lot of competitors would launch flavors just like that. Because those are artificial flavors. Again, if you would do, you would see...

Abhishek Pinninti: There are a lot of doing that. I know that.

Syd: It is easier to launch with artificial flavorings because again it is cheap. ⁓ can fool the consumer easily, okay it's cheap, it's effective. know Indian consumers are also changing every day, every month, every year. Everyone is not after the fact, hey it needs to be cheap only then I'm going to buy it. It needs to be discounted only then I'm going to buy it. Consumers are evolving, so are the brands.

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah.

Syd: For example, let's take Whole Truth. If they stick to their name, they're delivering what they're promising. mean, SALT similarly stands for that. That's why our tagline SALT Future of Wellness because we believe there is a future for the wellness and for wellness seeking individuals.

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah, consumer mindset has really changed. I mean, I've been seeing because I work with lot of people who plans for a while. You know, it's not just the tag the consumer is reading right now, but the composition which is going behind it. Everybody is looking up to it. And if you see the cost effective market where India used to be has now changed now, right now. ⁓

Syd: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. It has changed. It has changed.

Abhishek Pinninti: ready to pay for it if you promising what your brand is standing for. So that is a definite, I would say a shift that India has gone into. And I have another question for you. Why stick packs and why not ready to use, ready to drink kind of stuff, let's ⁓

Syd: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Abhishek Pinninti: And I also have another question which has come up. I use BCAA as well. Okay. It is a ready to drink. I mean, it's just powder when I it into water. I would like to understand what is the difference between you guys and BCAA and why stick packs not ready to drink.

Syd: Okay, yeah. Right, so again I'll tell you this is an extremely frequently and very common question that has been asked towards us or thrown at us. The thing is ⁓ ready to drink kind of formats are the sexy looking formats that everyone you know wants to get into but it comes with a lot of supply chain logistical issues which you would see as a common everyday thing that you must have noticed something like that. Like for example you must have seen

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah.

Syd: a trolley or a cart carrying those plastic bottles and some mishaps happened and they must have lost a lot of product but at a stage that we are it is a bootstrap company it is a bootstrap startup we had to be mindful I mean I'll tell you so the first pitch that we ever curated amongst ourselves you know like pros and cons like what we should do we were like really ⁓

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah.

Syd: inclined towards you know doing a RTD because it's sexy it is ready to go but with that it comes with a lot of supply chain and logistical issues for example the most expensive real estate in today's day in terms of consumer CPG is inside the freezer and something that is on your eye level that is the most expensive retail space not something which is in the bottom not something which is on the top right in front of your eye level that is the most expensive retail station

Abhishek Pinninti: Hmm.

Syd: And to get that retail space, bigger companies, Unilever, HUL, pay billions of dollars. I mean, I'm just exaggerating billions, but then millions of dollars obviously. A lot of money goes into that. So for the new consumer brand, which is Bootstrap, it is tough. It is tough to craft that space because again, RTD would only move when it's offline.

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah.

Syd: Again, we have a lot of players in today's day which are trying to move RTDs in an online D2C kind of a format. But I have a very traditional approach about that, that you need to crack the distribution, but when you're doing RTD, that you really need to be available everywhere. And even by everywhere, I mean, even if you tap a city, like say where I live, we're based out in Gurgaon, I want to say my product at multiple store shelves at least and given again. Because you're beginning your moqs are tough. ⁓ And then again, to sell that you need a lot of marketing budget. Right. So all of these things like really factor in when you are choosing between like a stick kind of a format versus an RTD. But then again, RTD is definitely something that we would want to do, but that's a future pipeline kind of a thing. I mean, let's see how our journey shapes and that's when it will come in. But for sure one day we will see an RTD.

Abhishek Pinninti: I

Syd: And secondly, answering your second question, how are we different from BCAA? So BCAA is essentially like branched amino acids. And then there is BCAA's ⁓ similar product. It's an EAA. It's essential amino acids. So essential only comprises of five and branched comprises of nine or maybe more. Those, that product doesn't really have electrolytes. We have electrolytes. Those are amino acids. Completely different. Yeah.

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah.

Syd: So that's Yeah. If you, yeah, go for it.

Abhishek Pinninti: Why do you think electrolytes for our body is required? What is the frequency that we have to have it like it's like an everyday thing or it's like how does that work?

Syd: Okay so ⁓ I'll break this down into two things how frequently it is required I mean we can consume it every day for sure yeah and then secondly if somebody who works out in any kind of capacity supposedly say walks say runs goes to the gym like myself or probably is in any kind of sport

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah, it's the quantity that we have to...

Syd: For them it's a mandate, you consume it. It's but obvious. But now let's talk about like an everyday joke. Somebody who has a 9 5 job wants to chill on the weekends with his friends and goes drinking occasionally or probably parties on the weekends because again corporate workers they like to party hard on the weekends because they have to blow off some steam. So the product is even built for them. Because again, if you wake up hungover... To break that hungover, for a cure, as a cure I mean, ⁓ traditionally what we would say is that consume lemon water. Probably consume some sort of curd. If somebody throws up, like if somebody is throwing up after consuming, if they are getting food poisoning, what do we do? We give them probiotics which is curd. We give them lemon water just so that they feel a bit more hydrated. Just so that they put in some salts, like our nani used to say, that black salt, lemon and water. So that is like a...

Abhishek Pinninti: Right. Yeah.

Syd: like a cure for all of these things and we have just put into like an effortless format like of a stick you consume it with water anytime on the go so anyone and everyone can consume it I have seen like a lot of people like across my gym they are still consuming Electrol and those people have turned to soils right after the moment the moment they met me and I gave them out a few samples that hey man if you're Electrol you're anyway spending 25-30 bucks on that thing One, it doesn't taste good, they have a problem with it and second it's got sugar, glucose, sucrose, all of those elements. So I am giving you a better alternative. You consume this, this is going to aid your performance. It has got no sugar. It's got all the electrolytes that you need. And that's a simple give and take. I am giving them a better alternative.

Abhishek Pinninti: ⁓ I had another question and you have answered this through this question but who is your actual customer? I would like to know your distribution and marketing which is my favorite part. What does your D2C versus Offlines look like?

Syd: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right. Okay, where are you based out of?

Abhishek Pinninti: I'm based out of Hyderabad.

Syd: Hyderabad lovely love that city my mom I mean just digressing Just digressing slightly. So there is this chain of schools in Hyderabad. It's called Meridian School Yeah, so my mom used to be the cluster principal of that school like six seven years ago like for a while Yeah, right. Yeah, right before these guys moved to the US So yeah, she was heading those that whole branch those whole ⁓ Yeah branch of schools

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah, I know. ⁓ project.

Syd: And again I have also travelled to Hyderabad quite a lot back in the day 2017-2018, love the city, I love Jubilee Hills whole area. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Abhishek Pinninti: Mm-hmm. 2017 to 2026 change the law

Syd: I bet, I bet. No, I mean it's called the high tech city if I'm not wrong, right? Hyderabad is something, I like Hyderabad. So, yeah, answering your question about the distribution part. offline, we do a lot of events, do a lot of collabs with say, with say, run clubs, with say, sporting arenas or say, pickleball clubs and all of those things. So,

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm.

Syd: ⁓ During offline events whatever the football is there we definitely tend to convert Some like say seven to six seven to eight percent of people out of those because again We're doing a lot of wet samplings. We are very aggressive about the wet sampling part and I feel a consumable Product needs to be pushed in such a way only be it an edible be it a drinkable kind of a format you people don't taste it They don't understand it, you know Absolutely, so ⁓

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah. Train is always there. ⁓

Syd: During those events we tend to convert a few people like 6-7 % supposedly say there are like 100 people we are able to convert 7-8 people out of those. There are times we have done more. then D2C we have recently started a performance marketing but like just in the end of the month of February and we launched our brand in the month of July 2025. So July to Jan 2026 essentially we didn't really use any kind of performance marketing. We were just two people, just me and my co-founder. We would do everything by ourselves. We would do all the events. We would reach out to consumers. We would reach out to people who want to participate in marathon. And that is how we would put the word out there. Okay, that this brand exists and you know. we would love for somebody to try that person, next person to try out the product. And again, we did go live on BlinkIt, like the quick commerce platform in even before we launched on our website in 2025. But

Abhishek Pinninti: So guys, that's for

Syd: Just Gurgaon, so I'm getting to that part about the distribution bit. ⁓ we July, August, September and October. So for four months we were on Blinket in ⁓ Gurgaon and we realized that ⁓ we have to pause operations because blink it for that again if the brand is not searched enough you will not get enough sales we were making sales because out of all our from all our activations and all of our awareness campaigns that we were doing but again we were not really heavily dependent on performance marketing because we just started it right now because we were like okay ⁓ again it was a challenge for our own sales key till what extent can we get the money in, how can we do it just by ourselves purely. So we realized okay this is our limit, is how we can do it, now it's time that we should put some money towards performance as well. So that has just started, mean with anyway doing 20-25 orders a day through our D2C website, 20 orders via Amazon. And again, we are planning to launch on Blinkit again ⁓ in the city of Bombay and in Gurgaon again in the month of April. So yeah, that's the distribution, but let's see how that pans out. And also something really interesting happened for us. ⁓ In December, ⁓ we got the opportunity to be available offline at this chain of sporting stores. It's called SCS. Selection Center sports. It's a Bombay based chain and they have like nearly 40 stores across India and Nearly like 14 stores just in Bombay itself. So yeah, so we got the opportunity to be live there in December and January We had the Tata marathon in Mumbai. So we had a crazy response. mean everything all inventory we send there sold out So again replenish them and again great feedback from people people are people are starting to discover us

Abhishek Pinninti: All next.

Syd: and again it's a 20 year old sporting goods chain so you understand the kind of credibility those people have still existing in the market where everything is going online. Yeah.

Abhishek Pinninti: Another brand which has come up in my mind when you're seeing this was Decathlon. If you guys can crack it, you guys can.

Syd: Decathlon actually curates or produces their own products like yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah, they are doing electrolytes, but then their electrolytes ratios are more like how ORS or earth The m-cure pharma those guys are doing so very similar to that not similar to us because we are like high on sodium 200 mg potassium 60 mg magnesium something like that

Abhishek Pinninti: ⁓ no.

Syd: Yeah.

Abhishek Pinninti: You said that you are focusing on performance marketing as a solar founder and trying to... ⁓ yeah sorry, two founders and ⁓ running very lean and counting on every penny. I would like to tell about myself and what I have gone through and what is the problem I am trying to solve for B2C founders. I have been running for my own marketing agency for the last five years.

Syd: No, no, we are two founders. Great.

Abhishek Pinninti: globally and in India as well. Then I have seen D2C brands facing a lot of problems in revenue leaks. Run campaigns in meta and google. The dashboard looks fine. the rovers will do good, you try to on your money, put more money in, money in. But then your rovers just stagnate there. They tank there. There is a

Syd: Okay. Mm-hmm.

Abhishek Pinninti: algorithm check we are doing and we are calling it as a revenue leak detector. that you know, we regularly check your campaigns, become your performance marketer co-pilot where you know, startups or high spending D2C brands where they cannot, you know, they cannot afford as a startup, cannot afford a performance marketer or a very well-doing agent. Whereas a high spending D2C brand will, you know, can't keep their campaigns regularly optimized. They have 150, 200 creatives on-roam. So with WTLSBAC.ai we are giving the revenue leak detection engine that once you set up your ad campaigns in meta or google you can set up an API with us, connect WTLSBAC.ai with you and regularly we optimize your campaigns and help you to get every penny you spend on meta and google perfectly.

Syd: Shh.

Abhishek Pinninti: and you know help you make more revenues to that. yes, so I mean we are in of the launch. have been working testing on our existing clients and we have brought the beta version and probably in the next week will be live and I would ask you to just test it out. We have a trail version.

Syd: Lovely, lovely, sounds interesting. Yeah. For sure would love to. Would love to. Yeah.

Abhishek Pinninti: go through it and come into marketing. have another question. You are acquiring customers through Instagram and Facebook or is there anywhere you're trying to spend money on?

Syd: So as I said, like a lot of offline events and a lot of collaborations with ⁓ right where our target audience really exists. Like for example, run clubs or say like hybrid formats. ⁓ And then again,

Abhishek Pinninti: about just the online marketing you are trying to do.

Syd: Yeah, yeah, online marketing is just via meta. Like at the moment it's just meta.

Abhishek Pinninti: Okay, right. So what, understood, what creative is actually converting? I mean, I think it's very lean time for you to guess on it, but what do you think it's actually working?

Syd: So I mean, it's just been a month, month and a half. I mean, to be very honest, since we have started the performance marketing, but, but I feel that the video based creatives have really worked for us. And also like differentiation, like this is what we are. This is worse than somebody else existing in the market. But more video based creatives have like really worked for us. Yeah.

Abhishek Pinninti: Right. So we also have a creative intelligence ⁓ inside us that ⁓ if your creative is not working, also recommend you a creative which comes through us that can work better.

Syd: Okay, and that will be AI generated.

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah, that is AI generated. Yeah, it is from an AI layer that we have built and it is AI generated.

Syd: Superb and really interesting.

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah, yeah. I think you're coming up with the question.

Syd: No, no, no. I was saying that it's really interesting what you're telling me.

Abhishek Pinninti: Yes, yes, yes. And tell me about your journey all, I mean, this 12 months coming back to India, know, starting a brand. ⁓ I think this is your first ⁓ year of entrepreneurship because I don't know because you've done something before or not. ⁓

Syd: Yeah, mean being as an individual, like both of us, and my co-founder both as individuals starting our own thing. It's like the first thing ever that we are building something of our own, but ⁓ then again, I come from a business family. So I've always been involved with the family stuff that has been ongoing, but it's also not my own thing, right? So hence I pivoted from what was existing already for me. to leave the country, move to Europe and then move from Europe to the US, be there for like 5-6 years and then you know deciding to come back, build something of our own. ⁓ The thing is that it is really interesting because you learn every day. You see faces of yourself that you have never experienced, you would never say you know again you would come across a lot many more situations which are uncomfortable for you. Suppose at least a cash flow because again when you're at a job you have the certainty of you know making that kind of money and again giving up, know six-figure jobs individually In the in the US it's it's it's hard people don't really do that because you are at a comfortable situation You have a car you have a house you have a life you have friends, you know, you gave up something because you dreamt of something else of where you are were and Then you have to leave what you dreamt of to build something else again. So yeah, it's quite interesting. mean, I mean, it's more like different chapters of life you come across. And again, it's been over a year since we've come here. And then again, we came here in September, 2024 and 2025 July is that when we launched. again, it's March right now, almost April, April, May, June. So three more months. till we make that whole one year loop of being an entrepreneur. So it's fun, it's nice. Yeah, go for it.

Abhishek Pinninti: I am sorry for

Syd: Yeah, yeah, I agree.

Abhishek Pinninti: It hits me a lot whenever I hear because as a person from day one, see today 1000 or day 1500 being an entrepreneur. As a person, you change a lot. All your system, product strategies remains there. But as a person, as a mindset you have, you change, then the company starts evolving. I think that is the, know, shift every entrepreneur goes through winning any brand as such.

Syd: Yeah. Yeah, Building anything is really hard. Again, as when we started this call and I said, bringing something to life of something that you imagined and when you have it in front of you, it's a whole different feeling. the weirdest part is not a lot of people in this world are able to experience it. You know? Yeah. So it is something. It is a beautiful experience altogether.

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah, I know.

Syd: you know, highs and lows are obviously a part of your life and then again, a lot of luck really influences how everything would pan out for anyone. But yeah, it's interesting, I like it. And so does my co-founder, I feel.

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah. I'll tell you a small, just sorry for, you I love reading it, but I want to tell you this, that I was a person who was not ready to take a no from anyone when I was, before start getting into business as a team, as an individual, as a kid, I was not ready to take a no from anyone, from my family, from my friends, from anything I do. But the day I started it, you know, getting into business every day used to hear a no.

Syd: Is it? Yep.

Abhishek Pinninti: It's from clients, it's from my employees, it's from any of my, know, initially I was not able to take it. But ⁓ today, if you say me a no for 100 times, that doesn't hurt me anymore.

Syd: Yeah. Yeah for sure, I get it. Yeah, I mean, it's just something that ⁓ I have not come across a thought like that for myself. But yeah, I appreciate you sharing this bit because again, yeah, no, I mean, it's something that hearing the no is not ⁓ an issue for me because I know that's how it is going to work.

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, I think you will get you will go through that. Yeah.

Syd: because again everything is not going to fall for you the way you want it to be like for example very very basic example like any kind of a startup who is trying to raise any kind of capital supposedly say 10 lakhs even for that 10 that is a miniscule amount again it is I'm just making this up that it again 10 lakhs is still a big amount for anyone me you or anyone in the world but even if you're trying to secure 10 lakhs of an investment from anyone

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah.

Syd: you would hear a thousand no's and two thousand maybes because a lot of people would not directly say no they'll be like we'll think about it and that's a may and that's a maybe and you're left in the middle you don't know what to expect and then when you reach back they 50 % would ghost you 50 % would be like okay we'll talk about it we'll think about it and they're still thinking about it you know how long do you need it you need to think about it yeah so again ⁓

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah. We'll let you know.

Syd: every person who every founder who is trying to raise any kind of thing like capital advisory any kind of thing they will get it so they know it's fine even for a retail space cracking a retail space it's so hard they'll be like we think about it yeah but that's the beauty of it that brings out the salesperson in you you know i mean yeah a lot of people don't know what they're good at till the time they do it like for example we ⁓ recently got an unturned

Abhishek Pinninti: and Yeah, exactly.

Syd: I mean he's about to complete his third month, I cannot even believe it. So how I am training him is in a way that he has to take care of influencer partnerships for Amazon, just Amazon. And you would not believe Abhishek that he has a knack for it and he did not know it. He is able to crack the creators who have massive following for a decent amount that a startup can afford. You know, he has a knack for it. And then we have another person who working for us. ⁓ Even that person is... So that's not an intern, it's a full time person. So they would not be able to do the same thing as that guy. and he's just in his third year of college and imagine he's able to ⁓ crack a vertical that someone else who's already been in the industry is not able to do it. So everyone learns a lot about themselves when they're know doing different things. Now anyone who is joining a startup at this stage they have to be a generalist anyway right so they'll have to do everything like I am today I'm doing sales call probably the next day you'll be doing a sales call and maybe if I'm not able to do it

Abhishek Pinninti: Thanks. Right.

Syd: do it, he is going to do it, somebody else will, somebody is going to be better than me. Yeah.

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah, I when you said this, I if you get some time, if you go through my YouTube channel, there are these long videos which I put out information about marketing and performance marketing and videos are edited by a 13 year old kid who is in his sixth grade in a town from in a small town from UP or MBI for work and he does that work.

Syd: Right. Really. Wow. Wow, that's impressive now. That's really impressive.

Abhishek Pinninti: That is, we call them as Gen Alphas now.

Syd: Yeah actually, so in fact even I was looking at this article that brands in today's day they don't they are not building for Millennials like you and me I mean I'm not sure what how old are you at least I am a millennial so okay so yeah so you must be born in the year 2000

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah. No, I'm 26. 99.4.

Syd: Top 20, so you must be turning 27 then. Okay, so you are like just on the verge. So you're a millennial too. So ⁓ the brands are building for Gen Z's and the bigger, the massier brands, they need to worry about working for the Gen Alphas. That's the thing. Because how, because they need to work towards that because the next bigger, biggest consumer wave is going to be Gen Alpha because India is the youngest country on the damn planet. You know.

Abhishek Pinninti: Yes. Yeah, yeah, I thought it... Yeah. Yeah, true.

Syd: So cracking that is the work of today, not of tomorrow.

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah, is really, that is, that really makes sense.

Syd: Yeah,

Abhishek Pinninti: I mean it was a very great chat with you. It was a great chat. And you know, I'm telling you, would definitely, I definitely ordered today and I would like to try and give you a feedback on it. And also, you launch PFS, I'll send you, which is back.ai. Please, you know.

Syd: Yeah man, same here. Yeah, would love to, would love for you to try it. Would love for you to try it man. Yeah, I was about to say that that definitely share me a link to that. I would love to understand how that works.

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah, sure man, for sure. And your feedback is very valuable and let's be in touch.

Syd: Absolutely, for sure. Thank you so much for this Kalman. I really enjoyed speaking with you.

Abhishek Pinninti: Yeah, yeah, me too man. Thank you. I'll see you. Yeah, I think we'll do a part two maybe and after a year and you guys are doing millions of revenue for sure.

Syd: Lovely. Thank you so much. ⁓ I would love to. I ⁓ we did definitely just close our fundraisers. So, I mean, we are just getting up for the FY 2026. So let's see how that goes with at least. Yeah. Lovely. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Abhishek Pinninti: Definitely you will go there man. I will see you there. For sure. Thank you man, I'll see you. Bye bye.

Syd: Bye bye.