Building a product that customers need is only one part of the challenge for a startup. Convincing those customers to trust a new and unfamiliar business can be equally important. This question forms the basis of Nobody Believes You Yet, a new book by Harsh Pamnani and Vargab Bakshi, which examines how Indian startups can build customer trust and successfully take their businesses to market.
The book, which went live on Amazon on September 29, brings together insights from 10 leading Indian venture capital firms and case studies covering 16 startups and brands. Its central idea, described as “trust-market fit,” explores how young companies can establish credibility with customers while selling, scaling and competing in India’s market.
Moving Beyond Product-Market Fit
Pamnani and Bakshi argue that achieving product-market fit may not by itself be enough to build a sustainable business. For early-stage companies, especially those introducing new technologies or unfamiliar products, customers also need reasons to believe in the company behind the product.
The authors examine this challenge through an Indian market lens rather than assuming that startup and go-to-market frameworks developed in Silicon Valley can be directly applied to India.
The book draws on original conversations with partners from Accel, Blume Ventures, Chiratae Ventures, Fireside Ventures, India Quotient, Kalaari Capital, Lightspeed, Peak XV, Z47 and 3one4 Capital.
16 Startups Across 30 Case Studies
Nobody Believes You Yet features 30 case-study chapters covering 16 startups and brands, including Skyroot, Darwinbox, Emergent, InVideo, Ather and Underneat.
The cases bring together perspectives from investors, founders and operators to examine the decisions startups make while trying to win customers, establish credibility and scale their businesses.
The authors said the book emerged from conversations with founders, investors and business-school communities. They found that while go-to-market remains one of the defining challenges for startups, much of the existing literature is based on American markets and does not fully capture the conditions faced by Indian businesses.
The book also looks at the specific challenge of taking AI-led and highly technical products to market. It explores how companies can make complex or less visible technologies easier for customers to understand, trust and eventually purchase.
“Founders often focus on building a product customers need, but they also have to make a young company feel dependable to people encountering it for the first time,” Pamnani and Bakshi said. They added that the book explores how Indian companies can build this confidence as they enter the market and scale.
Backed by Industry and Academic Leaders
The book has received endorsements from several business and academic leaders, including Sanjiv Mehta, Executive Chairman of L Catterton India and former Chairman and CEO of HUL; Prashanth Prakash, Founding Partner of Accel India; Avnish Bajaj, Founder and Investor at Z47; Manoj Kohli, former Country Head of SoftBank India and former CEO and Managing Director of Bharti Airtel; and Anindya Ghose, Professor at NYU Stern School of Business.
The book is now available on Amazon.
About Harsh Pamnani
Harsh Pamnani is a marketer, brand storyteller and bestselling business author with nearly two decades of experience. He has worked with organisations including FirstCry, Icertis, Deloitte, Cognizant, the World Bank, HSBC and T-Hub.
Pamnani has written more than 100 articles for publications including Forbes, The Economic Times and Financial Express and is a seven-time TEDx speaker. He teaches storytelling, design thinking and branding at institutions including IIM Indore, IIM Mumbai and MICA Ahmedabad.
He holds an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur, and a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from IET-DAVV, Indore. More information about his work is available at www.harshpamnani.com.
About Vargab Bakshi
Vargab Bakshi is a growth leader and operator who has worked on building and scaling internet businesses in India.
He was among the early leaders responsible for launching and growing Shopify in India and later served as Vice President and Country Head for Wix India. He is currently Chief Growth Officer at GoKwik, where he leads global growth for a platform serving direct-to-consumer brands.
Bakshi also runs Grow Kwik, a content platform for founders and operators with more than 500,000 followers across Instagram and YouTube. He advises and invests in startups across SaaS, consumer technology, AI and Web3 and has taught at institutions including IIMs, IITs, SP Jain, Narsee Monjee and Welingkar.
Through Nobody Believes You Yet, the authors aim to offer founders and operators an India-focused perspective on one of the most important stages of building a startup: moving from having a product to earning enough customer confidence to build a business around it.
-By Shivani Solanki
