Lavin Punjabi is an ad tech entrepreneur dedicated to restoring trust between users and digital ads through privacy-first technology. With a proven track record in developing user-centric ad tech products, Lavin has consistently driven innovation and added substantial value to the industry. As the Co-Founder and CEO of Affinity, a company often referred to as the ‘Columbus of New Media,’ Lavin spearheads a portfolio of ad network and SaaS businesses. The ad networks focus on branding and performance solutions for advertisers across unique formats and placements (mCanvas, VEVE, SitePlug and YieldSolutions). The SaaS businesses include AdOpsOne, NucleusLinks and Opinary, the latter of which was acquired in 2023. These ventures operate on a global scale, spanning the US, UK, Europe, India, Indonesia, and China. Lavin’s profound involvement in the ad tech industry since 2004, marked by his pioneering of privacy-first technology and product-led impact on the future of digital advertising, has established him as a recognized industry expert.
Board Member Category: Speaker
SUJAY KAR
Sujay comes with a decade of expertise as a Digital Transformation Specialist with 2 of World’s largest Telecom Players, launching eCommerce Operations and Customer Lifecycle Management Programs for Retail, handsets, fashion and Mobility products. Now at VMLY&R, WPP’s Digital Arm, Sujay creates Connected Commerce Solutions for Brands across CPG, Pharma, BFSI, and Consumer Electronics Categories.
Achieving several milestones like the Largest Predictive Retention Program and the largest Monthly Digital Sales Program in the World, Sujay has also worked extensively on building Digital Payment Adoption, developing Machine Learning driven Personalization Engines, and building omnichannel Commerce ecosystems.
DIPALI MATHUR DAYAL
Private banker turned entrepreneur, Dipali Mathur Dayal is the Founder and CEO of the game-changer brand, Super Smelly. Super Smelly is India’s first and only brand of personal care products for Generation Z, that are zero-toxin, made with natural ingredients, gentle yet effective, and dermatologically tested for safety. In her current capacity, Dipali is the wind behind product vision, investor management, brand management, strategy, and direction for the company. For this, she has been recognised as BusinessWorld’s choice for ‘40 Under 40’.
Dipali launched Super Smelly with her partner, Milan Sharma in 2018. Since then, the brand has taken huge strides. Besides an ever expanding product range, Super Smelly has bagged several awards, including one of the Top 10 Retail Start Ups of 2020-21 by Silicon India, Product of the Year and Organic Beauty Awards in Australia.
Super Smelly is close to Dipali’s heart because she conceived the idea, as a mother to a growing daughter. The glaring lack of options for natural, toxin-free and safe personal care products in the country, for the age group between the two bookends (babies and adults), galvanised her to carefully architect a brand, exclusively for teens, tweens and young adults.
Considering that Gen Z constitutes 40% of India’s population at present, Dipali envisions Super Smelly to establish itself as the market leader in personal care products for young skin and hair care.
Apart from her entrepreneurial commitments, Dipali loves to spend time with her family, read, travel, and is also a fitness enthusiast.
SIDDARTH MENON
Siddarth’s role is to drive growth through strategic initiatives that bring the brand essence to life across online and offline channels.He drives awareness, experience, and advocacy of Epigamia through an integrated marketing approach and uses consumer driven insights to come up with a coherent brand strategy for Epigamia’s growing portfolio of products.
Before joining Drums Food, Siddarth headed the North business for Colgate-Palmolive where he generated market share growth through his detailed go-to-market strategy and execution. Prior to that he was spearheading growth in volume and revenue as Marketing Manager for Colgate Dental Cream, Colgate Palmolive’s largest brand.
Siddarth holds a B. Com degree from MMK College in Mumbai and an MBA from JBIMS.
VINAY SINGH
Vinay Singh is the Founding Partner at Fireside Ventures, which is the hottest name in the “Direct to Consumer” Startup segment. Anchored by a slew of Marquee investors, Fireside manages a 150million dollar corpus. Some of the biggest names that they support include mamaearth, yogabar, Bombay shaving co. boat lifestyle and manay more
Vinay has over 7 years at Hindustan Unilever, McKinsey and Bankbazaar.com across sales and marketing. He has a unique perspective on the intersection between consumer brands and technology. He has also been an entrepreneur, as the founder and CEO of Stepni.com, which was acquired by Quikr.
- To begin with, tell us a little bit about the birth of Fireside venture, how you came to be involved?
- Direct to Consumer – a buzzword, the latest and most preferred business strategy. Vinay, you’ve been on the forefront of encouraging some of the best brands in this space, both through venture capital and mentorship. Tell me, what categories do you feel do well in this kind of model?
- What are some of the challenges associated with D2C model?
Since we have so many traditional brands also taking this route, what are some of the pitfalls they should be wary of?
Follow-up Q – As a startup entrepreneur launching a product on this model, what are some of things I should NOT be doing? - What I have gathered from what we spoke so far is that in-depth knowledge of the consumer is the key to D2C. How big is the dependence on first party data here? How much analytics is involved?
- Another thing we see with D2C brands is Sales First – Brand laterapproach and partiality towards ROAS or lower funnel metrics. What are your thoughts here?
- D2C models were catapulted onto the spotlight during the lockdown. But in a post covid world, do you see consumer behaviour changing?
- On the same lines, what is the future of Retail going to look like?
- D2C brands Aggregator brands carrying products, and product manufacturers selling products directly, are advertising in the SAME SPACES , and kind of competing with themselves in some ways. Is this sustainable?
- So one of the ways brands are actually interacting with consumers is through social media, and over the last 2 years it has become so very easy to talk to brands. Do you see this dependence on social channels as a challenge?
- What are some of the considerations new age brands need to keep in mind when approaching new partners and new media channels?
SUDHIR SUNDRANI
SHASHANK VAISHNAV
Shashank is co-founder & CTO of STAGE a dialect-based OTT platform in India. He has previously build WittyFeed and scaled it to 120 million monthly users.
THESTAGE Brief: Dialect-based, hyperlocal entertainment platform (OTT) for the next billion users (Bharat) in art forms such as Comedy, Folk, Poetry & Storytelling including movies and web series.
ADITYA BHELANDE
RONAK PARIKH
PRIYANKA GANDHI
A Media, Brand Communications & Digital professional, with over 20-years of experience in functional leadership roles across CPG and leading media & marketing services companies. Currently leading Integrated Brand experience, Media, and Digital Marketing for Colgate-Palmolive
