Forbes India - The Startup Fridays Podcast

Follow Forbes India - The Startup Fridays Podcast
Share on
Copy link to clipboard

The Startup Fridays Podcast is a weekly podcast series where Forbes India's Technology Editor Harichandan Arakali brings you conversations with startup entrepreneurs who are finding opportunities in solving problems in multiple areas. From agriculture and

Forbes India - The Startup Fridays Podcast


    • Dec 13, 2024 LATEST EPISODE
    • monthly NEW EPISODES
    • 49m AVG DURATION
    • 97 EPISODES


    Search for episodes from Forbes India - The Startup Fridays Podcast with a specific topic:

    Latest episodes from Forbes India - The Startup Fridays Podcast

    Startup Fridays S5 Ep12: Vishal Gupta's optimism for unicorns turning wealth creators for India

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 13, 2024 72:09


    In this episode, Vishal Gupta, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, talks about his career as a VC investor in India, and gives us an overview of the opportunities he sees on the basis of what Bessemer calls roadmaps that the firm develops for various sectors. In this conversation, recorded on November 26, Gupta also talks about how, from among today's privately valued unicorns and those that have recently gone public, will arise the next generation of blue-chip companies and large-scale wealth creators in the country.

    Startup Fridays S5 Ep11: Zepic's founders on their approach to marketing automation

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 29, 2024 53:55


    In this episode, Naveen Venkat and Sreelesh Pillai talk about starting another company whose name starts with the letter z. Jokes apart, Venkat, a repeat software entrepreneur, and Pillai, a seasoned marketer, talk about why they think their new startup, Zepic, has something refreshing to offer enterprise customers in the crowded world of marketing automation. In this conversation, which was recorded on November 8, the two also talk about how India's software products ecosystem is changing.

     Startup Fridays S5 Ep10: Ideaspring's partners on backing the next-gen deep techs in India

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 25, 2024 63:36


    In this episode, Naganand Doraswamy and Suryaprakash Konanuru, co-founders Ideaspring Capital, talk about their enthusiasm for India's early-stage deep tech startups. The two talk about how, while these startups are part of a nascent ecosystem, they are developing products that are sometimes coming to the fore for the first time anywhere. Doraswamy, who's more involved with the commercial aspects and Konanuru, a full-time CTO and products mentor for the VC firm's portfolio of startups are in the very early stage of raising their third fund.

    Startup Fridays S5 Ep9: Clairco and Sensiable join forces on decarbonizing buildings

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 16, 2024 49:16


    In this episode, the founders of Clairco and Sensiable, talk about their vision as one company, as their energy management tech and solutions complement each other – offering customers like Brigade Group a fuller suite of products and services. Aayush Jha, Udayan Banerjee, Ashish Singh and Akshay Davasam, talk about how they can help customers monitor one laptop on one desk or an entire multistorey building. Backed by investors including Anicut Capital, the entrepreneurs are about to announce a new round of investment as well.

    Startup Fridays S5 Ep8: Parithi Govindaraju on Okulo's long-endurance drones for India

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 2, 2024 62:32


    In this episode, Parithi Govindaraju, founder and CEO of Okulo Aerospace, gives us a quick update on the solar-electric hybrid long-endurance drones he and his team are developing, for what he describes as “persistent monitoring”. In this conversation, Parithi talks about the importance of such long-endurance UAVs for protecting India's strategic assets – both civilian and military. He also touches upon his experience so far, in building a deep-tech company out of India.

    Startup Fridays S5 Ep7: Abhishek Poddar and Saurabh Arora's experiment with tech and radical transparency

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 12, 2024 78:02


    In this episode, Abhishek Poddar and Saurabh Arora, founders of Plum Benefits Insurance Brokers, talk about how they are using tech to reimagine employee health benefits and insurance. In this conversation, Abhishek and Saurabh, who started Plum five years ago, also talk about how the journey so far has been one of discovering “a culture of radical transparency” with all stakeholders, which they say is an an important factor in their success.

    Startup Fridays S5 Ep6: AI for India – Jan Ki Baat, Sthaan and other use cases from People+ai

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 28, 2024 52:02


    This episode is the second part of a conversation with Tanuj Bhojwani, head of People+ai, a non-profit effort that's working to find population-scale applications of artificial intelligence that are relevant to large problems in India. In this conversation, Tanuj about how both the development and applications of AI in India will be different from what we see happening in the rich countries. People+ai is funded by Nandan Nilekani, chairman of Infosys and former chairman of UIDAI, through his EkStep Foundation.

    Startup Fridays S5 Ep5: AI for India – how people+ai was born

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 10, 2024 39:31


    In this episode, Tanuj Bhojwani, head of people+ai, a non-profit effort that's working to find population-scale applications of artificial intelligence that are relevant to large problems in India, does a quick recounting of how the initiative was seeded. In this conversation, which I hope will be the first of many on AI for India, Bhojwani also gives us a quick overview of the four main objectives at people+ai, funded by Nandan Nilekani, chairman of Infosys and former chairman of UIDAI, via his EkStep Foundation.

    Startup Fridays S5 Ep4: Axio's founders unpack lessons from BNPL success

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 5, 2024 44:28


    In this episode, Sashank Rishyasringa, and Gaurav Hinduja, co-founders of Axio, a buy-now-pay-later specialist in Bengaluru, talk about how, while a strong regulatory environment is critical in fintech, it can also become an enabler of innovation. Lower cost of money for “new entrants and challengers” with innovative financial products can benefit millions of consumers, which in turn can help India's economic growth, they say.

    Startup Fridays S5 Ep3: Ashok Jhunjhunwala on why India must say ‘yes we can' to deep tech

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 16, 2024 56:07


    In this episode, Ashok Jhunjhunwala, institute professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and president of IITM Research Park, Incubation Cell and RTBI, talks about why the next big push is needed now for India to become a nation of deep tech products over the next decade. He also asks that administrators and bureaucrats change their control mindset to allow our scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to fail without fear so that they can eventually succeed in building this ecosystem for India. 

    Startup Fridays S5 Ep2: Vinod Shankar's journey from software techie to lending books to deep tech investor

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 9, 2024 57:42


    In this episode, Vinod Shankar, founding managing partner at Java Capital in Bangalore, talks about his passion for backing deep tech entrepreneurs. Vinod started out as a software engineer but found himself repeatedly drawn to new experiences. His insatiable thirst for knowledge has taken him from a software startup to leading marketing for a library chain to angel investing to eventually working at a VC firm before starting one of his own. Vinod talks about why he wants to invest in deep tech, and how he identifies entrepreneurs worth backing.

    Startup Fridays S5 Ep1: Karan Mohla at B Capital on the convergence he sees coming in India's startup ecosystem

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 12, 2024 66:36


    Welcome to a new season of Startup Fridays. In this episode, Karan Mohla, partner at the VC firm B Capital talks about the convergence that he sees beginning to happen, which is bringing different aspects of India's startup ecosystem to points of inflection. Karan, who's based in Delhi, has been involved with investments in more than 20 companies including Bounce, FirstCry, HealthifyMe, Xpressbees and CropIn. He has led investments in startups in sectors including ecommerce, healthcare, SaaS, logistics, mobility, ed-tech, agri-tech and gaming. He's also now actively scouting for opportunities in climate tech and deep tech. In this conversation, Karan also talks about how he figured out early that entrepreneurship was not for him, but backing founders was. He talks about learning from early mistakes as a VC investor and the importance of being self-aware and honest when deciding on investments.

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep24: Kavita Shenoy, Anand Gopal part 2 – from nearly running out of money to a done deal

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 29, 2023 51:02


    This is part two of a conversation with Kavita Shenoy and Anand Gopal, on their 10-year entrepreneurial roller coaster, building Voiro, an ad-tech SaaS company in Bengaluru. In today's episode, they talk about how the $750 billion ad landscape is changing, their hopes for Voiro's future, how building their own company has been life-changing, and why it has them coming back for more every day.

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep23: Kavita Shenoy, Anand Gopal Part 1: 30k from Nandan Nilekani to multinational customers at Voiro

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 22, 2023 45:57


    Part one of a conversation with Kavita Shenoy and Anand Gopal, on their 10-year entrepreneurial adventure, building Voiro, an ad-tech SaaS company in Bengaluru. Kavita and Anand are natural conversationalists and story tellers, and produce their own podcast as well. In today's episode, they talk about how they started Voiro, and then went from consulting and services and an "excel sheet from hell" to a software product and winning customers like Hotstar.

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep22: Viral Shah on the mission at Julia Hub to help scientists and engineers innovate faster

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 15, 2023 61:58


    Viral Shah, co-inventor of Julia programming language and co-founder of Julia Hub, an enterprise software startup, talks about this opensource language's journey that will touch 15 years in the new year. Julia Hub, founded in 2015, today has customers including some of the world's biggest companies in pharmaceuticals, aerospace, semiconductors, and industrial engineering. With some $43 million in funding, Viral and his co-founders are helping scientists and engineers innovate faster by tackling what he calls the “two language problem.”

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep21: Amit Gupta on sticking to his by-the-pincode approach to scaling Yulu

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 10, 2023 50:02


    In this episode, Amit Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Yulu Bikes, gives us an update on how the electric moped venture will continue its pincode-by-pincode approach to growth. Earlier this year, Yulu added a battery-as-a-service business, called Yuma. Yulu has also entered the OEM business, with Bajaj Auto making the Yulu Wynn, a more stylish version of the Yulu Miracle, that consumers can buy for about ₹55,000 upfront, and then subscribe to a battery and mobility plan. Amit expects to go from about 25,000 of Yulu's low-speed scooters on Indian roads at the time we spoke, in September, to about a 100,000 by June or so next year. He also expects Yulu to hit breakeven this year.

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep20: Kiran Mysore on his journey from Bhadravati to UTEC's deep tech evangelist

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 6, 2023 54:29


    In this episode, we chat with Kiran Mysore, a principal at the University of Tokyo Edge Capital, one of Asia's biggest deep tech VC funds, on the ninth anniversary of his move to Japan, where he found his calling as a deep tech VC investor, leading global investments including India and southeast Asian ventures. We spoke mostly about his experience with the deep tech ecosystem in India thus far and plans. But Kiran also opened up a bit about his love of learning and how he stays on track.

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep19: Kunal Khattar on how the best is yet to come in India's EV sector

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2023 60:16


    Kunal Khattar, founding partner at AdvantEdge, an early-stage VC firm in Delhi, focused on India's mobility sector, talks about the future of this industry in India and the role that companies ranging from Ather to Tesla could play in it. He also talks about business innovations that could soon make electric vehicles more affordable to the Indian buyer and perhaps even cheaper than the fossil-fuel guzzling ones. Kunal also spoke a little bit about his own entrepreneurial journey, leading up to the setting up of his VC firm.

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep18: Arun Raghavan on journey from accidental investor to $40 mln fund at Arali

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 18, 2023 61:41


    Arun Raghavan, founding partner at Arali Ventures in Bengaluru, talks about how he and his friend Rajiv Raghunandan became VC investors with an operator's flavour, and the experience that's helped them invest very early in entrepreneurs across sectors, from fintech and SaaS to deep tech startups. Arun also talks about how India is ready for the next level of sophistication in sectors such as SaaS, where we need to go from application-level plays to infrastructure layers. Such companies would then be truly relevant to global customers

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep 17: TN Hari's counterintuitive ideas on purpose and other notes on Indian startups

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 4, 2023 64:50


    In this episode, TN Hari, co-founder of Artha School of Entrepreneurship, who's also a prolific author on building for India, and an angel investor, talks about his learnings from across his career – from being a corporate executive at Tata Steel to diving into startups like TaxiForSure and BigBasket. He talks about problems in India that aren't necessarily amenable to the hyper-growth model of VC funded startups. And he talks about the value of some highly effective leaders, who're almost invisible to the public eye, he says.

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep16: How Shivnath Babu wears two hats lightly, an entrepreneur and a scientist

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 16, 2023 55:52


    In this episode, Shivnath Babu, co-founder and CTO of Unravel Data, talks about the growing importance of data observability and the contributions being made by his venture. Shivnath started his career as a computer science engineer from IIT Madras and then earned his PhD in the area of data platforms at Stanford University. He spent 12 years as an adjunct professor at Duke University before teaming up with Kunal Agarwal to start Unravel Data. The venture today is a Series D-funded company with investors including Third Point Ventures, Menlo Ventures and GGV Capital.

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep15: Will Poole on investing in resilient founders in the global south

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 9, 2023 60:51


    In this episode, Will Poole, co-founder and managing partner of Capria Ventures, talks about the opportunities and challenges in investing in the global south. Will started his career with a computer science degree 40 years ago and worked at some of the biggest names in tech, including Sun Microsystems and Microsoft, before turning to VC investing. A significant part of that career involves working in India, where in his own words, an early lesson was about finding “resilient founders.” He also talks about why he wants every company in Capria's portfolio to have a generative AI strategy.

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep14: The lightness of being Dev Khare and other notes on India's startup scene

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 5, 2023 63:32


    In this episode, Dev Khare, a partner at Lightspeed, one of the most prominent global early-stage VC firms operating in India, talks about how and why he became a venture capital investor, and what keeps him going today. Dev also talks about how India's startups are changing, how Lightspeed is different, in his view, and some lessons from his own career, having tasted entrepreneurship firsthand before turning VC investor—the importance of timing, the value of compounding not just investments but relationships, and a simple productivity hack that always works for him.

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep13: Sayandeb Banerjee on life as a ‘practitioner' CEO at TheMathCompany

    Play Episode Listen Later May 12, 2023 69:20


    In this episode, Sayandeb Banerjee, co-founder and CEO at TheMathCompany, talks about how his six-year-old venture has grown from strength to strength, building custom analytics solutions for some of the world's biggest companies. He also talks about how he's always had an entrepreneurial streak; the advantages of not taking VC money too early; lessons Banerjee, and his co-founders Aditya Kumbakonam and Anuj Krishna, had to learn or unlearn as “practitioners,” new to hard-core sales; and finding personal space and time for his love of the sitar.

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep12: Why Rishi Navani seeks founders he can't help, and what he means by that

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 28, 2023 46:32


    In this episode, Rishi Navani, founder and managing partner at Epiq capital, a growth-stage VC firm, talks about never losing sight of the core idea of venture capital, which is to make substantial returns for his investors. Over the 25 years that he's been backing ventures, including previously co-founding Matrix Partners India, Navani's way of doing this is to not spend time on how he can add value to an entrepreneur or startup, he says. Instead, he seeks founders who are so good that they mostly don't need his help, beyond the capital

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep11: Arun Kumar at Celesta on tough times revealing resilient founders, great investments

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 24, 2023 43:58


    In this episode, Arun Kumar, managing partner at Celesta Capital, talks about why some of the best VC investment opportunities can be found in tough times, as they reveal the most resilient entrepreneurs. Kumar's career includes leading KPMG India and serving in former US President Barack Obama's administration. He also talks about embracing change—from leading thousands of colleagues at KPMG to being part of a team of about 25 at Celesta—the importance of purpose, his love of poetry and learning to enjoy everything that life threw at him.

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep10: SpotDraft's founders on spit-and-a-handshake in the age of machines and AI

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 17, 2023 55:40


    In this episode, Shashank Bijapur, Madhav Bhagat and Rohith Salim talk about how they got to build SpotDraft, which offers a machine learning and AI-based contract lifecycle management platform to legal teams at companies around the world. Founded in 2017, SpotDraft has helped customers process more than a million contracts since the company released its first commercial product. The first-time entrepreneurs have raised nearly $45 million in funding from investors including Prosus, PremjiInvest, and Arkam Ventures. This year, soon, they expect to hit an ARR of $10 million

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep9: Ganesh Rengaswamy's fascinating trip from Travel Guru to Quona Capital

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 5, 2023 55:18


    In this episode, Ganesh Rengaswamy, co-founder and managing partner at Quona Capital, looks back at how he once juggled being a co-founder at Travel Guru and an MBA student at Harvard Business School, and what he would have done differently. Ganesh also talks about Quona's deep interest in fintech in India and several other markets; and how India's public digital infrastructure and private startups will eventually unlock the massive potential of our SMBs. He also talks about his own experience with respect to seeking and learning from mentors

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep8: Nishchay Ag's plan to stay scrappy, be shameless and build a Zoho at Jar

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2023 55:38


    In this episode, Nishchay Ag, co-founder and CEO of Jar, talks about how there is a massive addressable gap in India's middle class with financial products that go beyond the top 30 million that everyone is targeting. Nishchay talks about how he and his friend Misbah Ashraf went from a few WhatsApp group pilots to 10 million users at Jar, in just two years, helping people save money by investing in gold, every day. With close to $65 million in funding, Jar is changing how millions of small-town Indians save, one user at a time

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep7: Bala Srinivasa on the great middle Indian opportunity for startups and VCs

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 3, 2023 55:53


    In this episode, Bala Srinivasa, managing director at Arkam Ventures, talks about experiences from the firm's first set of 14 investments so far from their $106 million inaugural fund. Over the last four years, Srinivasa, and his fellow founding partner Rahul Chandra, have backed entrepreneurs who have successfully applied technology to create business innovation in areas including financial services, agriculture, modern staffing and augmented reality. A second thesis at Arkam is software-as-a-service and Bala also talks about why Indian SaaS companies mostly prefer the US as a market

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep6: Nitin Chhabra's fascinating journey from Boomer bubblegum to SaaS to $50 mln retail operator

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 17, 2023 61:44


    In this episode, Nitin Chhabra, co-founder and CEO of Ace Turtle, a tech-enabled retail business that's the force behind brands like Lee and Wrangler in India, talks about how the company started out as a SaaS business, selling software for the so-called omnichannel retail. Nitin and co-founder Berry Singh then decided to risk that entire business, convincing their board and investors, to transform Ace Turtle into a retail operator, even as the Covid pandemic was unfolding. They are now looking at more than doubling their sales to become a $100 million company over the next 12 months.

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep5: Suresh Sambandam's irrepressible optimism for India's SaaS sector

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 10, 2023 48:59


    In this episode, Suresh Sambandam, founder and CEO of OrangeScape, better known for its product Kissflow, talks about persevering for over 15 years, before he found himself at the right place at the right time offering the right product. Suresh now dreams of making his company at least one of the top three in the world in its category. He also talks about his optimism for India's cloud software sector and why he believes it can really deliver a trillion dollars in value—an idea that he says was dismissed by many when he aired it at a conference in Bengaluru some four years ago

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep4: ‘To succeed as an entrepreneur, never lose sight of your end goal' – Ben Mathias

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 6, 2023 41:59


    In this episode, Ben Mathias, managing partner at Vertex Ventures for Southeast Asia and India, talks about how he decided to leave behind a nice life in the software industry in Silicon Valley, to come to India as a VC investor. With over three decades in the tech and VC industry combined, Ben talks about what investors did to startups over the last two years, distracting them with too much money from the real purpose of building lasting businesses. He also talks about why Vertex is very bullish on India, how the firm invests, and what his investment plans are in 2023

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep3: ‘Small-town India remains a largely untapped opportunity for startups' – Anjani Bansal

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 27, 2023 56:52


    In this episode, Anjani Bansal, partner and India country head at Global Brain, a Japanese VC firm, talks about why certain opportunities in small-town India are ready for startups to grab and create disruptive innovations. The time is also right for Global Brain to step up its own operations in India, Bansal says, who is looking to grow his team and go beyond the “outbound” investments that the firm has largely relied on so far. Bansal talks about his own “meandering” journey starting from a chance encounter with a book on Rwanda and the path that it set him on

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep2: ‘Find difficult and large problems and prepare for the long haul' – Rahul Garg

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2023 58:50


    In today's episode, Rahul Garg, founder and CEO of Moglix, talks about what's next for the company, which he says is knocking on $600-700 million in revenue. He also talks about his love of solving not just difficult problems, but difficult and large ones, which feeds his entrepreneurial decisions. Aspiring founders must understand this, and prepare for the long haul—from the existential challenges of the early years to facing the question ‘can you scale profitably,' later on, he says.

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep1: ‘I wish for India, many unreasonable entrepreneurs' – Cody Friesen

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 13, 2023 52:25


    In today's episode, Cody Friesen, founder and CEO of SOURCE Global, talks about his dream of putting to bed one of humanity's biggest and most urgent problems—the lack of access to clean drinking water for billions around the planet. Friesen is a scientist, engineer, teacher and entrepreneur. In this conversation, he also reflects on his approach to knowledge transfer, the “vibrancy” of India's startup ecosystem, and his hope that we'll see many entrepreneurs willing to challenge and break the status quo to solve some of our biggest problems

    Startup Fridays S3 Ep13: Anand Lunia at IndiaQuotient on why we need ‘Hindustan Big Tech' to level the playing field

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 9, 2022 68:02


    Our guest today is Anand Lunia, general partner at IndiaQuotient, a well-known domestic VC firm that backs entrepreneurs attempting to solve large problems for the Indian market at even “concept stage.” In this episode, Anand talks about how 2021 was an exception, and for the startup ecosystem to come back to its mean, two-thirds of the startups may not be able to raise money, going forward. He also talks about how, as a nation, we ought to prioritise software independence, backing local entrepreneurs developing intellectual property, and not just software jobs

    Startup Fridays S3 Ep12: ‘Established entrepreneurs from the best startups in India must step up as mentors' – Madhu Shalini Iyer

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 25, 2022 63:37


    Our guest today is Madhu Shalini Iyer, a partner at Rocketship.vc—a Silicon Valley-based fund investing globally. Iyer started out with an engineering degree from the University of Sydney. In her 20-plus years as an engineer, operator and investor, her previous roles include chief data officer at Gojek, which she helped to grow into a business valued at $10 billion at the time, and a founding member of Intuit's Quickbooks Lending Platform. Rocketship's portfolio in India includes Apna, Moglix, Khatabook, Uravu Labs, Mad Street Den and Agnikul, and several other companies

    Startup Fridays S3 Ep11: ‘Strategic investors can make or break a deep tech venture, choose wisely, time it right' – Sriram Viswanathan

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2022 59:02


    Our guest today is Sriram Viswanathan, the founding managing partner at Celesta Capital. In this episode, Sriram talks about his long association with technology and investing in deep tech companies, and Celesta's strategic focus on the US-India corridor. He also has some experience to share with deep tech entrepreneurs, in areas including product-market fit, growth and scale, the value of strategic investors, and exits

    Startup Fridays S3 Ep10: ‘From doer to enabler, I'm optimistic about innovation and inclusion in India' – Sanjay Jain

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 4, 2022 36:27


    Our guest today is Sanjay Jain, partner at Bharat Fund and chief innovation officer at CIIE.co. Sanjay, who played a leading role in building Google's Map Maker, and later was the founding chief product manager at UIDAI, talks about his journey going “from doer to enabler.” With a master's in computer science from UCLA, and experience as a serial entrepreneur himself, Sanjay also talks about how the fund, a Rs. 600 crore corpus, attempts to straddle intellectual-property-led innovation and an inclusion mandate for the Bharat segment of India.

    Startup Fridays S3 Ep9: ‘For your company to last 100 years, empower everyone to singularly focus on the client' – Srikanth Velamakanni

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 21, 2022 73:10


    Our guest today is Srikanth Velamakanni, cofounder, group CEO, and vice chairman of Fractal Analytics, which as the name suggests, provides deep analytical insights to customers in a range of verticals, including retail, financial services, and healthcare. Srikanth co-founded Fractal in 2000, and it turned unicorn earlier this year. The real aspiration, Srikanth says, is to have the company outlast its founders.

    Startup Fridays S3 Ep8: ‘Climate tech is cause for optimism but we're just not doing enough' – Grace Sai

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 7, 2022 46:12


    Our guest today is Grace Sai, cofounder and CEO of Unravel Carbon, a company that is making it easier for businesses to track and reduce their carbon emissions, with a focus on Scope 3 emissions and Asia. Grace is a serial entrepreneur and also a VC investor as a Kauffman Fellow. She has an MBA from the University of Oxford (where she was a Skoll Scholar) and a Masters in Change from INSEAD. She speaks 6 languages and lives in Singapore. She co-founded Unravel Carbon with Marc Allen, about a year ago, and the venture is backed by investors including Y Combinator and Sequoia.

    Startup Fridays S3 Ep7: ‘If you are among the top growth drivers in any company, why not build your own' – Ajeet Singh

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 23, 2022 63:29


    Our guest today is Ajeet Singh, cofounder and executive chairman of ThoughtSpot. In 2009, he co-founded Nutanix with Dheeraj Pandey and Mohit Aron. Today, it is a listed company in the US with $1.2 billion in ARR. In 2012, he co-founded ThoughtSpot with Amit Prakash. The company is seen as a leader in enterprise data analytics. At its last funding round, announced in November 2021, ThoughtSpot was valued at $4.2 billion dollars, with total funding of $674 million. ThoughtSpot plans to invest $150 million over the next five years in India

    Startup Fridays S3 Ep6: ‘Choose your stakeholders, investors wisely, and you won't get pulled in different directions' – Smita Deorah

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 16, 2022 66:49


    Our guest today is Smita Deorah, co-founder and Co-CEO of Boulevard Leadership, better known for its edtech business LEAD. Smita and her husband Sumeet Mehta started LEAD in 2012. Today the company reaches a million students in 3500 schools in more than 400 cities in India. It is now a unicorn, privately valued at more than a billion dollars, by investors including WestBridge, Elevar Equity and GSV Ventures

    Startup Fridays S3 Ep5: ‘Think big; one launch a day is aspirational but possible' – Pawan K Chandana

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 9, 2022 51:27


    Our guest today is Pawan Kumar Chandana, co-founder and CEO of Skyroot Aerospace. Pawan and Naga Bharath Daka, both former ISRO engineers, started Skyroot in 2018 and over the last four years they—and their team of 200—have reached a point where their next big step will be the space flight of their first rocket, Vikram I. Earlier this week, they also made headlines for the biggest funding round at any Indian space tech startup so far, raising $51 million from Singapore's GIC. Perhaps this will also prove to be a pivotal moment for India's private space ecosystem

    Startup Fridays S3 Ep4: ‘To win in startup investing, bring differentiated value to founders' – Ashutosh Sharma

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 26, 2022 55:32


    Our guest today is Ashutosh Sharma, head of investments in India for Prosus, one of the world's biggest technology investors. In this episode, Ashutosh, who has led Prosus's investments in India for some six years, talks about how an emerging trend in the country's startup ecosystem is led by entrepreneurs “building in India for India.” That is reassuring, even amid a slowdown, because it augurs well for the long-term growth of entrepreneurship in the country, he says.

    Startup Fridays S3 Ep3: ‘If your conviction is strong, follow through, as there's rarely a right time' – Bobby Balachandran

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 19, 2022 50:33


    Our guest today is Bobby Balachandran, founder, president, and CEO of Exterro Inc., which provides a sophisticated tech platform for global corporations to better manage their governance, risk, and compliance needs. Bobby started out with a BSc in computer science from Government College of Technology in Coimbatore in South India, and an MS in from Portland State University in Portland, Oregon in the US. He started Exterro in his garage in 2008. Today, the company is privately valued at more than a billion dollars

    Startup Fridays S3 Ep2: ‘Deep tech founders need tech-biz grasp, patient money, and stamina for the long game' – Krishna Rangasayee

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 12, 2022 50:19


    In this episode, Krishna Rangasayee, founder and CEO of SiMa.ai, a 30-year veteran of the semiconductor industry, with more than 25 patents to his name, talks about why the edge is the new battleground. He also delves into the reasons that compelled him to take his first entrepreneurial plunge after a long corporate career, building a cross-border deep tech company and what such ventures need to succeed

    Startup Fridays S3 Ep 1: ‘That teaching hasn't kept pace with the world became my idea' – Aditya Prakash

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 5, 2022 39:44


    Our guest today is Aditya Prakash, co-founder and CEO of Skidos Labs, an award-winning maker of a children's educational apps company headquartered in Denmark. Aditya co-founded Skidos in 2013, which today offers a software development kit that can infuse math education for children into any game. Before Skidos, after an MBA from the Indian School of Business Hyderabad and The Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth, Aditya had a successful corporate career, including work at Bharti Airtel and HT Media

    Startup Fridays S2 Ep.15: ‘Entrepreneurship is about selling a future only you see' — Rajesh Jain

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 22, 2022 55:51


    Our guest today is Rajesh Jain, founder and group MD of Netcore Cloud. In the world of entrepreneurship, he is best known for selling one of his earliest ventures, IndiaWorld Communications, to Sify—then Satyam Infoway—for $115 million, in 1999, one of the biggest internet deals of the time in Asia. Jain founded Netcore in 1997, and has bootstrapped it to a profitable $100 million ARR SaaS company that is preparing for an IPO

    Startup Fridays S2 Ep.14: ‘We knew we were onto something when we analysed our rejections' – Vinay Nair

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 19, 2022 47:45


    Our guest today is Vinay B Nair, Founder and CEO of TIFIN, which is a fintech venture in the US that provides technology and expertise to business clients to apply AI to personalise their financial products and services to their end customers or consumers. Vinay has a chemical engineering degree, and a doctorate in finance and economics. He founded TIFIN in 2018. Previously he has been a hedge fund manager and sold a startup, 55 Institutional Partners, an investment advisory, to JP Morgan. He is a visiting faculty member at The Wharton School and co-author of 'Investing for Change' – a book that argues for responsible investing.

    Claim Forbes India - The Startup Fridays Podcast

    In order to claim this podcast we'll send an email to with a verification link. Simply click the link and you will be able to edit tags, request a refresh, and other features to take control of your podcast page!

    Claim Cancel