What Does It Take to Scale a Hardware Startup in India? Amit Gupta (Yulu) Has the Answers

Founder Thesis

"We have zero customer acquisition cost with a hardware business."

This seemingly impossible statement from Amit Gupta reveals a counterintuitive truth: asset-heavy businesses can create stronger competitive moats than asset-light ones. While Silicon Valley preaches software scalability, Amit proved that owning physical infrastructure can lead to supply-constrained growth where customers queue up for your product.

Amit Gupta is the Co-founder and CEO of Yulu, India's largest shared electric mobility platform with 45,000+ vehicles facilitating over 80 million rides and 20+ million monthly deliveries. Previously, he co-founded InMobi, one of India's first profitable unicorns valued at $1+ billion, where he drove global expansion across 70+ countries and helped build a $200 million revenue business. From mobile advertising networks to electric vehicle fleets, Amit has mastered the art of building category-defining companies in completely different industries.

Key Insights from the Conversation:

👉Asset-Heavy Advantage: Physical infrastructure creates defensible moats that digital competitors cannot easily replicate

👉Supply Constraint Strategy: Being supply-constrained with high demand beats demand-constrained growth models

👉EBITDA vs EBIT: Understanding the financial progression from operational profitability to full profitability in asset-heavy businesses

👉Purpose-Built Design: Custom-designed vehicles for commercial use achieve 10x better unit economics than generic products

👉Regulatory Arbitrage: Strategic product design around regulations (sub-25kmph) expanded addressable market significantly

👉Second-Time Founder Lessons: Technology focus vs business expansion - applying learnings across different industries

👉Zero CAC Achievement: Network effects in physical infrastructure leading to organic customer acquisition

Chapters:

0:00:00 - Introduction: From Family Business to Tech Entrepreneur

0:18:32 - Early Career: Software to Banking to Startups

0:26:36 - M-Khoj: SMS Search to Mobile Internet Pioneer

0:49:22 - InMobi Success: Building India's First Profitable Unicorn

1:07:21 - Glance Innovation: Lock Screen Revolution Within InMobi

1:17:37 - Yulu Genesis: Personal Traffic Frustration to Mobility Mission

1:25:28 - Product Evolution: Bicycles to Electric Vehicles Pivot

1:39:14 - Technology Deep Dive: IoT, Predictive Maintenance & Security

1:51:52 - Business Model: Asset-Heavy Strategy & Unit Economics

2:12:14 - Scaling Strategy: Direct Operations vs Franchise Model

2:24:51 - Second-Time Founder Wisdom: Key Transferable Lessons

#ElectricVehicles #SharedMobility #StartupIndia #Unicorn #AssetHeavy #Hardware #IoT #UrbanMobility #Sustainability #SecondTimeFounder #Entrepreneurship #TechStartups #MobilityTech #IndianStartups #VentureCapital #Scaling #ZeroCAC #SupplyConstrained #RegulatoryStrategy #PhysicalInfrastructure #EntrepreneurAdvice #startuplessons

Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the speaker, not necessarily the channel.