Good Morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],

Products that are truly meant for all of India—those that empower its peoples and cultures—are hard to come by. Somehow, most of our celebrated startups only seem to have an eye for tier-1 cities. There are entire demographies that are still severely underserved, entire cultures that go largely unrepresented. 

That’s how Vinay Singhal, co-founder and CEO of Stage, put it in the latest episode of Two by Two.

Stage is a regional OTT app that creates and curates premium, original programming in Haryanvi, Bhojpuri, and Rajasthani, all at highly affordable prices. And it wants to crack open India’s regional content markets by telling stories rooted in local cultures.

A Netflix for Bharat, in many ways. 

Of course, most OTT platforms already offer dubbed content from across India, but Vinay’s point is that language is just part of what makes a culture. There’s a lot more that goes into it—history, location, traditions—and this is precisely what Stage is trying to solve for. 

Stage today has 4.4 million paying subscribers and around $21 million in annual recurring revenue. And they raised $12.5 million in a Series B round just last month. For a company founded in 2019, which still only produces content in three “cultures”, the numbers are nothing to scoff at. 

How did Vinay and his team get here? What was their winning formula? How does the future look from here? All are questions that Vinay, alongside hosts Praveen Gopal Krishnan and Rohin Dharmakumar, breaks down in the latest episode of Two by Two.

Two By Two • EPISODE 39

Can Stage become the Netflix for Bharat?

Vinay Singhal, co-founder and CEO of Stage, discusses how he’s building the ‘confidence layer’ of the country through regional content

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When you install and open the Stage app, these are the first couple of screens you see.

Source: Hari Krishna

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The fact that the default language was Hindi didn’t surprise me at all, and there was an option to toggle over to English, but what really stood out to me was what happens after you log in. 

Stage asks you to choose your culture. 

The main options are: 

“Main Bhojpuri hoon” (I’m Bhojpuri)

“Main Haryanvi hoon” (I’m Haryanvi)

“Main Rajasthani hoon” (I’m Rajasthani)

Vinay says Stage wants to expand far beyond these markets, but wherever they choose to go next, the vision remains the same: offer people a stage to be proud of their cultures.

That’s all well and good. But how do you turn your passive subscribers (who only have the app installed) into paying subscribers? 

The answer lies in UPI. Specifically, in one innovation that’s really starting to stick.

Many recurring payment modes in India are broken, but UPI’s Autopay has come through for Stage. It helps that UPI is the country’s most widely used payment method, and Stage is using it to gauge potential subscribers’ intent.

Sticking to their roots and lowering barriers to entry helped Stage come a long way. But those aren’t the only things propelling the company forward. 

To understand Vinay’s and Stage’s journey until now—what worked and what didn’t; how the failure of his first venture, Wittyfeed, led to the making of Stage; and how they made their first movie with a budget of just Rs 4 lakh—you’ll have to listen to the full episode. 

We’ll be back next week with another episode. You can write to us at [email protected].

Regards,
Hari Krishna

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