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Ever since he moved out of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Snapdeal&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Snapdeal</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Anand+Chandrasekaran&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Anand Chandrasekaran</a> has guided a couple of promising young <keyword id="6362513" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Startups">startups</keyword>. Since 2013, he has invested close to $25,000-50,000 each in about 15 startups based out of India and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Silicon+Valley&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Silicon Valley</a>. Also, he has met his doppelganger not once, but twice. 
 
Over the next couple of months, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Anand+Chandrasekaran&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Chandrasekaran</a> is looking to help this young crowd with his unique insights into product-building. He is looking to invest in 4-5 more over the next two months. 
 
Business Insider caught up with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Anand+Chandrasekaran&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Anand</a> one Friday afternoon. This chat has been long due. 
 
How did you get into <keyword id="1995572" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="Angel-investing">angel investing</keyword>? 
My involvement with startups happened largely because I wanted to learn from them. That happens when you are a part of their journey. 
 
I steer clear of areas I don’t understand and can’t add any value to. Thanks to my work at Airtel and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Snapdeal&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Snapdeal</a>/<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">FreeCharge</a>, I have been familiar with the application of marketplace to various sectors, consumer internet and fintech. 
 
What does it take to be funded by <keyword id="1973987" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Anand-Chandrasekaran">Anand Chandrasekaran</keyword>? 
The two questions I ask is what is that they are trying to do, and if it is a problem worth solving. If the answers to both are yes, I’m very excited. Even if they don’t succeed financially, but try very hard and move the agenda forward in some way, that’s a win. 
 
You have invested in a food tech startup, <keyword id="2797965" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="Innerchef">InnerChef</keyword>. What are your sanity checks when investing in a troubled sector? 
These are typically young companies, and there’s not much data available. One thing that’s important to me is consumer experience. By that, I don’t mean just the app. 
 
Speaking specifically of food-tech, what I like about InnerChef is their focus on the end-to-end consumer experience. People don’t want food spilling over them, so packaging must be great. That kind of obsession with the customer experience caught my attention. 
 
The other interesting part is they figured out what should be driven directly by their kitchen, and what can be done through a marketplace. 
 
That’s a brilliant hybrid model for a food-based market-place. Most importantly, they control the quality of the food. This helps in cutting cost as well, and helps maintain a discipline which keeps each kitchen profitable. When a startup can control the food quality and the unit economics, it’s a great company. 
 
It’s hard to be successful in food-tech without controlling food. 
 
Believe it or not, there’s another Anand Chandrasekaran in India’s startup eco-system. Same name, same spelling and if you ask me, they look oddly similar. 
 
The other Anand Chandrasekaran is the co-founder of Chennai-based Mad Street Den. Founded in 2013, it received a funding of $1.5 million last year and is working with the Tata Group to build its <keyword id="35621" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="e-commerce">e-commerce</keyword> platform. The MAD in their firm's name stands for MindAbled Devices. You can reach him <a href="https://twitter.com/madstreetanand">here</a>. 
 
What was the moment like, when Anand met Anand? We keep running into each other when I’m in Bangalore. I remember we were both at the <keyword id="270604" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="40" keywordseo="Sequoia">Sequoia</keyword> Hack event, and Shailendra Singh took a photo of both of us. Most recently, we were speakers at the IndiaHacks event by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=HackerEarth&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">HackerEarth</a>. 
 
It’s shocking how much we have in common. We have the same name, same spelling and similar up-bringing. We both went to Stanford, both got advanced degrees and have similar mannerisms. It’s spooky! 
 
How is that your and Punit’s exit came at a time when <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> and <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> were rumored to be ‘re-structuring’? 
I played a small role in Punit coming to India, and to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Flipkart&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Flipkart</a>. I was working with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Bharti+Airtel&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Bharti Airtel</a>, and shared my experiences about moving from the Valley to India. Since he took that plunge, that conversation was probably helpful. 
 
I believe knowledge is best when shared. He believes the same. Other than that, we weren’t in touch. I had no idea what his plans were, and my decision was not pre-meditated. It’s a bit of a co-incidence that the two of us joined around the same time, and left few months apart. But there’s not much beyond that. 
 
Is there any chance you are going back to the ‘employee life’? 
I’m still in the process of figuring this out. I have written on Quora about the same. 
 
Read <a href="https://www.quora.com/Anand-Chandrasekaran">Anand </a><a href="https://www.quora.com/Anand-Chandrasekaran">Chandrasekaran</a>'s <a href="/What-is-Anand-Chandrasekaran-plan-post-quitting-Snapdeal#ans25794189">answer</a> to <a href="/What-is-Anand-Chandrasekaran-plan-post-quitting-Snapdeal" ref="canonical">What is Anand Chandrasekaran plan, post quitting Snapdeal?</a> on <a href="https://www.__nousername__.main.quora.com">Quora</a> 
 
In the last 5-7 years, I’ve realized I enjoy working with people who level the playing field. That’s my sweet spot, and I want to do it in a way that’s entrepreneurial.

Anand Chandrasekaran – India's product-obsessed Angel with a Doppelganger

<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">FreeCharge</a> has recently announced in a <a href="https://blog.freecharge.in/2016/05/19/now-whatsapp-money-with-freecharge/">blog post</a> that users can now use its ‘<keyword id="3293302" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="Chat-n-Pay">Chat n Pay</keyword>’ to pay using <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=WhatsApp&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">WhatsApp</a>. The feature is much like Tencent’s money transfer service on WeChat. 
 Users will have to go to ‘<keyword id="6377963" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Freecharge">Freecharge</keyword> on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=WhatsApp&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">WhatsApp</a>*’ on the Freecharge Menu of their Android phone, click ‘Enable’ to enable Freecharge in accessibility settings, open <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=WhatsApp&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">WhatsApp</a>, type in the amount followed FC, for example 100F, and the transfer’s done. 
 At the launch of FreeCharge’s ‘Chat-n-Pay’ feature, <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> Chief Product Officer <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Anand+Chandrasekaran&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Anand Chandrasekaran</a> said in an <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Exclusive-The-Good-Boy-of-e-Payments-Anand-Chandrasekaran-CPO-Snapdeal/articleshow/51496881.cms">exclusive Business Insider interview</a> to that ‘the intuition was that payments can be social’. Looks like they’ve done it. 
 
The ‘Chat n Pay’ feature was launched on FreeCharge in March, was built as a feature over the new chat-based communication in the latest version of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=FreeCharge&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">FreeCharge</a> app. 
 
FreeCharge has recently joined hands with Zivame, ClearTrip, RedBus and Café Coffee Day to enable its Wallet payments in merchant outlets. The company claims customers can pay at any time in less than 10 seconds in a secure way across all RedBus platforms. 
 
FreeCharge is currently positioned against segment-leader Paytm. The portal is a key to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Snapdeal&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Snapdeal</a>’s businesses in building an all-inclusive online marketplace like China’s <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Alibaba&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Alibaba</a>. 
 
Image credit: Indiatimes

You
can now send and receive money on WhatsApp using FreeCharge

It’s been just 10 days that <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> redesigned its website, but looks like there is more on the mind of the SoftBank-backed company, as it looks forward to adding new features and further improving the user experience. 
 
As per reports, these new features would include product selfies, enhanced order-tracking and a new 'my order' page. 
 
"The product has been redesigned to improve the overall information architecture," Anand Chandrasekaran, chief product officer, told ET. 
 
Talking of 'product selfie', it allows users to post a selfie with the product they bought from the website. "We have had a phenomenal response to it so far as customers get to see actual people using the product," Chandrasekaran said. 
 
In the past six-seven months, Snapdeal has made extensive use of technology to improve efficiency and customer experience. As per the company claims, delivery times have been brought down by 70-75% in the past year because of investments done in the logistics company GoJavas. Also, refunds from the company are now based on the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS). 
 
"Since September 2015, 93% of refunds are being done within 30 minutes. It has been integrated with the wallet on the back-end to make the whole experience seamless for the customer," Chandrasekharan said. 
 
In addition to this, we have also seen smaller launches like SnapLite, which enables users with slow network connections to access a lighter version of the website, and Snapsearch, which allows users to upload pictures and find similar products on the website.

Product selfies, IMPS refunds and much more; this is how Snapdeal is using technology to improve user experience

For most of us, <keyword id="1829745" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="thinking-machines">thinking machines</keyword> happen to be sci-fi stuff, but for those working in the <keyword id="107950" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="100" keywordseo="artificial-intelligence">artificial intelligence</keyword> (<keyword id="6355999" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="AI">AI</keyword>) space, that is just a ground reality. AI is slowly gaining traction among <keyword id="100363" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indian-entrepreneurs">Indian entrepreneurs</keyword> and a handful of companies are already working on one product or the other, targeting specific segments. But here is one brand new <keyword id="6404679" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="start-up">start-up</keyword> which is hoping to open up this field and make it super easy for <keyword id="6357020" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="developers">developers</keyword> to <keyword id="1973991" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Incorporate-AI-components">incorporate AI components</keyword> in their apps as per their requirements. Chennai-based <keyword id="1973988" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mad-Street-Den">Mad Street Den</keyword> (interestingly, ‘<keyword id="6707506" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mad">MAD</keyword>’ stands for <keyword id="1973989" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mind-Abled-Devices">Mind Abled Devices</keyword>) will be offering easy-to-access <keyword id="1973997" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="AI-solutions">AI solutions</keyword> via a Cloud-based platform, thus delivering intelligence to the world, on a broad scale. The <keyword id="1974000" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="IA-stack">IA stack</keyword> comprises <keyword id="1974001" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sensory-processing-layers">sensory processing layers</keyword>, as well as <keyword id="1974004" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Contextual-binding-layers">contextual binding layers</keyword>, and aims to deliver three categories of <keyword id="1974005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Consumer-experiences">consumer experiences</keyword>. 
 But that does not mean lack of more intriguing products on the part of the start-up. Mad Street Den is all about intelligent innovation and the company is working intensely on a series of products using vision, speech and touch-based processing (among others), aiming to cater to verticals like <keyword id="6357332" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="gaming">gaming</keyword> and <keyword id="4578" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="entertainment">entertainment</keyword>, <keyword id="6354750" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="health">health</keyword> and <keyword id="15482" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="lifestyle">lifestyle</keyword>, and <keyword id="6355300" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="security">security</keyword> and <keyword id="6359249" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="analytics">analytics</keyword>. Here is a snapshot that captures the start-up’s vision and viability. 
 
Who runs Mad Street Den (www.madstreetden.com): A core team of four including <keyword id="1718234" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Co-Founder-CEO">co-founder &amp; CEO</keyword> <keyword id="1973987" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Anand-Chandrasekaran">Anand Chandrasekaran</keyword>. Anand holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT-Madras and a PhD in Neuroscience from <keyword id="503459" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Baylor-College-of-Medicine">Baylor College of Medicine</keyword>. During his Post Doctoral stint at <keyword id="33081" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Stanford">Stanford</keyword>, he specialised in <keyword id="1974014" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Neuromorphic-Engineering">Neuromorphic Engineering</keyword>, building <keyword id="1974017" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Custom-silicon-chips">custom silicon chips</keyword> that emulate various regions of the brain. At that time, Anand was part of the <keyword id="10875" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="IBM">IBM</keyword> team and working on <keyword id="265122" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="DARPA">DARPA</keyword>’s <keyword id="1974019" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SyNAPSE">SyNAPSE</keyword> project (for the curious, let’s tell you this project focuses on building all sorts of <keyword id="1974020" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Smart-hardware">smart hardware</keyword> that emulate higher intelligence). 
 Prior to starting his own venture, Anand joined a Palo Alto-based start-up called Evolved Machines, Inc., as a research scientist and developed various neural algorithms that could connect to real-world sensory perceptions like vision and smell. “As part of Evolved Machines, I was involved in another DARPA project called <keyword id="1974022" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Neovision2">Neovision2</keyword>,” he recalls. 
 There are three others in the core team – another <keyword id="170488" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="co-founder">co-founder</keyword> who has some very useful experience in designing products that use the <keyword id="294572" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="100" keywordseo="machine-learning">machine learning</keyword> approach; an experienced and distinguished professional with a similar background to Anand’s and another expert who builds the kind of network infrastructure the company requires. Although development work started in March this year (a month after Anand returned from <keyword id="6357722" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="silicon-valley">Silicon Valley</keyword>), the start-up was officially launched in August 2013 and has recently shifted its headquarters from Bangalore to Chennai. 
 
What inspired the venture: During his stint at Evolved Machines, Anand decided that he would work on AI projects of his own. So he worked as a <keyword id="17182" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Consultant">consultant</keyword> with <keyword id="1973986" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Zort-Technologies">Zort Technologies</keyword> for a couple of years while trying to figure out what to do next. 
 “Although building great AI is a good thing, we did realise that there were very few solutions in the market that would help create great <keyword id="1974006" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Consumer-experience">consumer experience</keyword>,” says Anand. “That’s because there is no unified platform that allows easy and cheap <keyword id="1974027" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Access-to-AI-elements">access to AI elements</keyword> – no suitable infrastructure for handling the requirements of the applications using those elements. So we decided to create such a platform. That way, we can build a whole new ecosystem for everyone who wants to create new experiences enhanced by AI.” 
 
What’s the pitch: Making machines more useful by making them a bit more human: Fun, intelligent and relevant. They will sense as babies, observe and play as youngsters, learn and change with you as they grow older. In brief, the start-up aims to provide AI support across three categories of experiences – fun and play, usefulness &amp; convenience, and helpful &amp; revealing. “Someday in the near future, we hope to bring everyday objects to life, not just the devices we use today,” the site notes. 
 
How it works: Mad Street Den is in the business of delivering artificial intelligence to the world – in varied formats and across industries. The primary product is a Cloud-based <keyword id="1974029" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="AI-platform">AI platform</keyword> that developers can leverage to incorporate <keyword id="1973990" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="AI-components">AI components</keyword> into their applications. This ‘MAD’ (Mind Abled Devices) stack currently focuses on <keyword id="1974030" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Vision-based-applications">vision-based applications</keyword> and delivers elements such as <keyword id="1974031" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Facial-gesture-analysis">facial gesture analysis</keyword>, <keyword id="406688" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="face-recognition">face recognition</keyword>, <keyword id="1974032" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Gaze-tracking">gaze tracking</keyword> and so on. However, the start-up will expand and diversify its offerings as the platform grows. As of now, the target sectors include apps, <keyword id="34609" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="services-industry">services industry</keyword>, gaming and analytics (imagine test-marketing a product and getting insightful feedback through AI apps that can decode facial gestures of potential customers and correctly surmise their reaction to the product in question). But in the next few years, Mad Street Den may also develop low-cost <keyword id="1974033" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Custom-hardware">custom hardware</keyword> to support its existing stack; create <keyword id="1974034" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="High-end-cognitive-hardware">high-end cognitive hardware</keyword> for big enterprises/software companies and finally make foray into <keyword id="62549" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Robotics">robotics</keyword>. 
 
“All these are in the pipeline and we intend to create more apps and new products by leveraging our own AI platform,” explains Anand. “That will further create new and wonderful experiences enhanced by our AI solutions and speak volumes about our quality.” 
 
Claim to fame: Novelty of concept and the tremendous potential are the key factors at this point. Very few <keyword id="770060" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indian-start-ups">Indian start-ups</keyword> are currently working in the <keyword id="1974055" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="AI-space">AI space</keyword> and it could be the next big thing when Web 3.0 – widely assumed to be a combination of artificial intelligence and the semantic Web – finally arrives. 
 
Show me the money: Till date, the start-up has been bootstrapped and has not started earning revenues. As of now, the <keyword id="232730" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="business-model">business model</keyword> is essentially B2B, but Anand has high hopes about B2C earnings as the company is also building its own products. “We are a very early-stage company, completely self-funded and in the process of building our scalable infrastructure and our first B2C product (a game) by early next year. In fact, we will be demoing our prototype at MobileSparks 2013 in Bangalore tomorrow (December 14), he says. 
 “As we have many potential <keyword id="598465" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="revenue-streams">revenue streams</keyword>, it is a little difficult to gauge the market size at present,” he observes. “But it spans everyone – from the <keyword id="1974050" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="College-dorm-developer">college dorm developer</keyword> to <keyword id="1974051" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Small-product-companies">small product companies</keyword>, to service providers and <keyword id="163194" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="OEMs">OEMs</keyword> who want to enhance their offerings. Even <keyword id="1974052" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Large-corporations">large corporations</keyword> might want their own custom stacks and proprietary <keyword id="1974026" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="AI-elements">AI elements</keyword>,” he adds. 
 Although bootstrapped, Mad Street Den is not looking to raise funds just now. “We intend to work on our product pipeline first and come up with 1-3 more products by mid-2014,” says Anand. “Once we have the process in play and are getting considerable traction at consumer and enterprise levels, approaching investors will make sense. Also, we have gone past the incubation stage now. Neither are we limited to a single platform or product. Therefore, we will be looking at a very large angel round or maybe a small <keyword id="919124" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Series-A">Series A</keyword> within a year, depending on our requirements. Given our <keyword id="1974053" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="RD-requirements">R&amp;D requirements</keyword>, we would like to expand our operations to the US as well.” 
 
Biggest challenge: Competition is always there as several companies are working in the AI space – both in India and abroad. But the field is vast and almost completely untapped; so there is space for everyone. “Currently, there’s no delivery model like our Cloud platform, especially in the vision space. So that gives us some competitive edge and we are building the rest of the USP,” concludes Anand.

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Anand Chandrasekaran – India's product-obsessed Angel with a Doppelganger

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