Suggestions
Surjendu K.
Tech Entrepreneur, Founder and CEO of Zopper
Surjendu Kuila is a tech entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Zopper, an Insurance API Infrastructure Platform based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India.1 Here are some key details about him:
Professional Background
Surjendu has extensive experience in the tech industry:
- He founded Zopper in August 2018 and has been serving as its CEO since then.1
- Prior to his current role, he was the Founder and COO of Zopper from June 2011 to July 2018, when the company operated as a hyper-local mobile marketplace and later pivoted to a SAAS-based platform for merchant digitization.1
- His earlier career includes positions at notable tech companies:
- Senior Engineer at RSA (The Security Division of EMC) in California
- Technical Architect at CIBER, Inc. in Seattle
- Software Programmer at Apple Computers in Cupertino, California
- Programmer Analyst at Infosys in Connecticut
Education
Surjendu has a strong educational background:
- He holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, with a focus on Marketing, Finance, and Entrepreneurship.1
- He completed his B.Tech degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.1
Entrepreneurial Achievements
Under Surjendu's leadership, Zopper has achieved significant milestones:
- The company has raised $96 million in four rounds of equity funding.1
- Zopper aims to connect Insurance Carriers with Ecosystem Partners through its API Infrastructure Platform.1
- Investors in Zopper include Creaegis, ICICI Venture, Bessemer Venture Partners, Tiger Global, and Blume Ventures.1
Personal Interests
Surjendu describes himself as:
- A first-generation entrepreneur
- Having immense interest in Deep Space and Military history
- A sports and fitness enthusiast1
Surjendu Kuila is actively involved in discussions about the insurance industry and technology's role in transforming it. He has spoken about the need for innovative breakthroughs in the insurance sector, similar to those seen in lending and payments.23
Highlights
Recently in one of my Mumbai visits I met a seasoned investor who, in passing, asked me “What’s wrong with the Indian startup ecosystem?” As I was in a hurry, I casually told him that the new set of founders are worshipping the wrong Gods (aka the cash-burning founders) and believing in their dangerous sermons. Unfortunately, we all have started believing that whatever sermons they are spewing are the “gospel truths”. I was itching to write a LinkedIn post on this at leisure, but the question prompted me to quickly pen down something. Over the last 12 years of my association (read: in the trenches) with the Indian Startup Ecosystem, I have come across a few types of "Founders". Founder Type A -> There is a set of founders who were able to offer exits to investors and by virtue of that attained ceremonial status of “Demi-Gods”. Their startups, even after 14-15 years of operation today, burn boatloads of cash with no signs of profitability. Luck played a very important role in their exits; as in most cases the macro factors acted as catalysts. Founder Type B -> There is another set of founders who instead of creating, destroyed value. As their startups changed hands, significant value got eroded, each time. Company A sold itself to Company B for $X Million. Company B, after a few years, sold itself to Company C for $X/2 Million and after another few years Company C offloaded itself to Company D for $X/4 Million. All this while destroying value. Founder Type Z -> And then you have the lesser mortals who have been building their companies brick by brick with blood, sweat and tears and most importantly "very quietly". And while doing so, they have created serious long term value. I call them the “Never Enough” founders. Founder Type A and B, as part of mutual admiration sessions, narrate a very different philosophy of startup ethos to the new crop of entrepreneurs and I believe that’s a gross injustice happening to the industry. Blatant disregard for investor’s money and financial engineering to show palatable P&L are considered acceptable. Themes such as “Burn cash to buy growth”, “Grow at a breakneck speed to raise the next round” are considered to be the ONLY way to build a company, which the new set of entrepreneurs are emulating. Standards such as strong work ethics, discipline, tenacity have been replaced by myopic vision, frivolous ideas, cash guzzling execution, disrespect for frugality and long term value creation. That's what I believe is wrong with the Indian startup ecosystem. The new crop of entrepreneurs are executing the sermons of these so-called “Ivory-Tower” founders (A and B), doing even more harm to the ecosystem. We fail to recognise that in the long term, companies will always be valued on EBITDA, PAT, FCF – these are the ONLY solid business fundamentals. Rest all metrics are either created for convenience or for hiding the real health of the startup.
Recently I bumped onto a seasoned investor during my flight from Chennai to Mumbai. We spent 2 hours discussing investment thesis, lack of meaningful exits in India, short-cuts founders’ take, corporate governance issues, flavour of the season investing and lack of long term value creation.
All those topics are so close to my heart, I thought let me pen down a “nutgraf” for the first time entrepreneurs.
-
Focus on long-term value creation. Always. Prioritise sustenance/profits over mindless growth. Growth is good but not at the cost of going belly-up.
-
Be bold in taking decisions. Always keep a fine balance between short term growth (that reflects in monthly MIS) and long term sustenance (It helps when the macro changes and you are at the right vantage point)
-
Never give up. I have witnessed very few founders who have the grit, audacity to persist and be tenacious. Remember you can only create wealth if your startup survives. And don’t hesitate to pivot. We at Zopper pivoted twice. Today we are the largest Insurtech player in India. We couldn’t have reached here, had we not survived for the last 11 years.
-
Listen to everyone but do what you believe is the best for the company. If you are building for the next 50-100 years, your decisions can never be wrong. Having said that, I can't vouch for your decisions, if your goal is to flip the company soon in the next financing round.
-
Do not over-optimize on valuations. If you believe your valuation can withstand public scrutiny, take it. I repeat - Do not over optimise. In the long run, you will always be valued for what your company rightfully deserves. Not a penny more, not a penny less.
-
Stay away from “30 Under 30”, “40 under 40”, “Entrepreneur of the Year” and all the pomp and show. Study suggests that 95% of the startups founded by “30 Under 30”, “40 under 40” founders, fail in 3 years flat. What I mean is - "Your only focus should be your startup and not you".
-
And finally, building a company is incredibly hard. So invest in “Self-Care” as a founder because your mental and physical health affects business outcomes and productivity.
#startups #business #investment #entrepreneur #founders
Experience
Education
Location
People also viewed
Related People
Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.