Learn from the best on how to build and scale ventures.
About Simran Khara: My next guest on The One Percent Project is the charismatic Simran Khara, the founder and CEO of Koparo. Simran talks about her Journey: From McKinsey to Entrepreneurship. She has an MBA from the Indian School of Business and is an alumnus of the London School of Economics and Shri Ram College of Commerce. With over 16 years of experience, she has advised, built, and monetized in her roles at McKinsey & Co, Star TV, and Juggernaut Books. Now, she is building Koparo, a D2C toxin-free home-care brand. In this conversation, Simran talks about the importance of discipline, adaptability, and social skills that she imbibed growing up in a Faugy Family, the liberating environment Mumbai offers to women, her role at Star TV and what she gathered from her mentor, Uday Shankar, becoming the CEO of Jaggaurnat Books, building Koparo, the impact of being featured on Shark Tank India, and much more. This conversation inspired me to kick off a series on "First Time Founders", where I will invite young and experienced entrepreneurs who will help share their journey of building a business with no prior entrepreneurial experience. If you have any guest recommendations, drop me a line at pritish@onepercent.live Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_YouTubeVideos LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta In this conversation, he talks about: 00:00 Intro 02:24 Finding Love and Career in Mumbai: A Personal Journey 03:31 Life Lessons from a Fauji Brat: Discipline, Packing, and Social Skills 05:07 Embracing Competition and Empathy in Professional Life 07:41 From McKinsey to Star TV: A Career Transition Story 10:47 Learning from Uday Shankar? 11:30 The CEO's Perspective: Sales vs. Operations 13:15 Leading Juggernaut: An innovative book publishing venture 21:06 Launching Koparo: Innovating in Home Cleaning 24:27 Applying to Shark Tank India: Leveraging TV for Brand Growth 26:24 Unique Challenges and Insights as a D2C Founder 30:15 Generalist Vs Specialist: A career choice for youngsters 32:26 Why is struggle an evolving concept? 33:41 Counterintuitive insight about entrepreneurs. 34:28 Shark Tank India: Impact, Value & Opportunity 36:15 What does success mean to you?
Full Conversation: https://bit.ly/TOP_BusinessBreakdownIndianFB
Full Conversation: https://bit.ly/TOP_BusinessBreakdownIndianFB
Full Conversation: https://bit.ly/TOP_BusinessBreakdownIndianFB
About Sarthak Ahuja: My next guest and co-host on The One Percent Project is Sartha Ahuja. In this episode, Sarthak & I deep dive into India's Food and Beverage industry. We discuss the unit economics of running a restaurant to making butter chicken, ordering patterns in India, the business models of food aggregators like Zomato and Swiggy, cloud kitchens, and the reason behind the rise and fall of Uber Eats. We uncover the success story behind Domino's and how in such a competitive industry, Ankit Gupta and Chirag Chhajer built Burma Burma, a Burmese cuisine restaurant chain. Sarthak shares how consumer businesses must undergo a "speed Ludo test," emphasising time efficiency, small transaction sizes, and positive unit economics. This strategy is essential for long-term success in a price-sensitive market like India. Sarthak is a published author, a seasoned Chartered Accountant with expertise in startup advisory and investment banking and a LinkedIn top voice who brings a wealth of intriguing insights to the discussion. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_BusinessBreakdownIndianFB Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_YouTubeVideos LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta 00:00 Intro 04:10 The most ordered dishes 09:21 Indian Food Preferences and the Authenticity of Chinese Cuisine 11:06 The Business Models and Unit Economics of the Food Industry 15:40 The Challenges and Economics of Running a Restaurant 39:54 The Success Story of Domino's in the Indian Market 44:38 Identifying Opportunities in the Food Industry 45:18 Burma Burma's reason of success
About Salone Seghal: My next guest on The One Percent Project is Salone Sehgal, a trailblazer in the world of gaming and interactive media. Salone has shattered the glass ceiling by becoming the world's first female general partner of games and interactive media VC funds. Her impressive journey has seen her co-founding Lumikai Fund, India's first early-stage interactive media and gaming VC. Salone's remarkable career expanded to over 18 years as a global game and new media investor, games entrepreneur, and former M&A banker. In this conversation, she talks about the history of gaming, the cultural impact of gaming, the female Indian gamer, the unit economics of the gaming industry, and much more. Subscribe to the show wherever you listen to it and sign up for The One Percent Project's "Think" newsletter at onepercent.live for curated content that adds value to your professional and personal development. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Salone Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta 00:00 Intro 02:14 Salone's journey into Gaming. 07:38 The History and Evolution of Gaming 16:11 How did Nokia stumble upon "Snake"? 17:49 FAANG founders are gamers. 23:41 The Indian Female Gamer. 27:32 Unit Economics of the Gaming Industry. 30:37 Observations on One-Hit Wonders in Gaming. 34:39 Evaluating Success in the Gaming Industry. 38:36 Understanding the Gaming Demographics- Building a Career in Gaming. 44:26 Views on the Metaverse. 47:59 One management advice that you have learned as a leader. 50:44 Reflections on Leadership Figures- Michelle Obama & Indra Gandhi. 52:22 Are leaders polarising? 52:56 Kindest thing anyone has done for you. 53:32 Key takeaways
About Arjun Ranga: Globally, incense is the silent bridge that connects humans to the divine. And naturally, no Indian wants to compromise when it comes to their hopes and prayers. This episode of The One Percent Project is an intriguing exploration of the incense business and its essence in Indian culture with a remarkable guest, Arjun Ranga, the CEO of Cycle Pure Agarbathis, a part of the NR Group. In this insightful conversation, Arjun delves into the fascinating journey of Cycle Agarbathis, the world's largest incense manufacturer, and its transformation into the world's first certified zero-carbon manufacturer of incense, prayer, and air care products. Arjun also shares his journey as the CEO, drawing inspiration from his grandfather and NR Group's founder, Shri N. Ranga Rao. He sheds light on the deep-rooted significance of prayer in Indian culture and the sentiments attached to it, his marketing strategies through the years, his vision for the company and much more. Joining him in this conversation is Sarthak Ahuja, a seasoned Chartered Accountant with expertise in startup advisory and investment banking and a LinkedIn top voice who brings a wealth of intriguing insights to the discussion. Join us in this fascinating episode to explore the dynamic intersection of business, culture, and sustainability. Subscribe to the show wherever you listen to it and sign up for The One Percent Project's "Think" newsletter at onepercent.live for curated content that adds value to your professional and personal development. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_ArjunRanga Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta In this conversation, he talks about: 00:00 Intro 02:28 History of the incense industry 03:44 Journey of building Cycle Pure Agarbathi 09:54 How can you innovate and stay relevant in a highly commoditised industry? 12:20 Product Positioning 14:42 Key customer retention metrics in the incense industry 17:02 Customer segmentation for a diverse Indian market 20:32 Premium positioning of incense: Who is the target audience for premium incense products? 23:50 Why is vanilla the most used fragrance in premium stores and bakeries worldwide? 24:36 Why are the Gulf, Europe and Africa the largest markets for incense? 25:42 Value chain & Unit economics of making an Agarbathi. 27:09 Actual product differentiation Vs product marketing and branding 27:55 His journey of becoming the CEO. 31:43 The growth and impact of D2C. 34:50 Cyle's association with cricket 37:45 Cycle's next decade 39:42 The disruption AI would bring to the industry
About Vijay Rayapati: The next guest on The One Percnet Project is Vijay Rayapati, the co-founder and CEO of Atomicwork a startup that helps enterprises bring their employees, IT systems, and HR operations together to drive business impact. Previously, Vijay co-founded Minjar, a cloud management startup. Minjar was acquired by Nutanix in 2018. Vijay's journey is a testament to grit, patience, and perseverance. From his early life in a small town in Andhra Pradesh in India to becoming a prominent entrepreneur, Vijay shares his counterintuitive insights on entrepreneurship, the importance of people's success, and his passion for seeding and building. Join us as we explore Vijay's journey, from his roots in a small town to his role as a leader in the tech industry. Subscribe to the show wherever you listen to it and sign up for The One Percent Project's "Think" newsletter at onepercent.live for curated content that adds value to your professional and personal development. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Vijay Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta In this conversation, he talks about: 00:00 Intro 02:28 Influence of his mother 05:01 Journey from a small town to Atmoicwork 13:52 Why build Amnigos- a Food delivery startup in 2007? 20:28 Why build Minjar after Amigos's failure? 25:23 Types of entrepreneurs 27:27 Why build Atomicwork? 35:13 Outbound vs. Inbound lead generation 39:17 Pricing 42:07 Why is generative AI the next Saas? 46:40 Generalist Vs Speacialist 47:07 Counterintuitive insights about entrepreneurship 49:24 Three Books 51:05 Advice to younger self
About Sawan Kapoor: My next guest is Sawan Kapoor. Sawan is widely recognised as 'The Career Guy' and India's foremost career coach. From his early days at Daymon Worldwide, the largest private label broker in the FMCG industry, to his rise as CEO of a multi-million-dollar organisation in the Wine & Spirits industry, Sawan's journey is marked by rapid progression and visionary leadership. His ability to navigate challenging situations, like a sudden job loss in a foreign country, spurred him to develop a systematic, scientific approach to finding the perfect job fit, a methodology he uses to guide thousands of professionals towards career success. In this episode, we will dive deep into Sawan Kapoor's life, extracting insights and wisdom that have the potential to reshape career journeys. Discover how Sawan's experiences, from the corporate world to entrepreneurship, have shaped his perspectives on adversity, growth, and the art of career development. Subscribe to the show wherever you listen to it and sign up for The One Percent Project's "Think" newsletter at onepercent.live for curated content that adds value to your professional and personal development. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Sawan Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta In this conversation, he talks about: 00:00 Intro 02:13 History of career guidance and coaching. 03:22 Early life. 13:53 Path to becoming a CEO. 18:40 How important is it to invest in yourself? 20:08 His journey to becoming a Career Coach. 23:56 How to design a career? 29:02 How to find the right career coach? 32:38 Why do you need to surrender to your coach? 37:07 How to kick off a career in coaching? 40:11 How do you create a brand that lasts for generations? 45:33 His views on being a generalist vs. a specialist. 47:23 Counterintuitive insights about career coaching. 50:13 Books that have influenced him the most. 51:45 Advice to his younger self.
About Chaitanya Ramalingegowda: This episode of The One Percent Project tells the story of Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, the co-founder of Wakefit, a household name in India synonymous with quality sleep. Chaitanya's journey to Wakefit is a testament to persistence and unwavering determination. Before starting Wakefit, Chaitanya had nineteen years of experience spanning entrepreneurship, management consulting and marketing. Wakefit, his third start-up stint, co-founded with Ankit Garg, has emerged as a game-changer in the world of sleep solutions. Crafting products that redefine comfort and wellness, Wakefit's journey parallels Chaitanya's own pursuit of excellence in entrepreneurship. In this episode, Chaitanya talks about his remarkable journey, an expedition marked by uphill battles, shares the challenges he faced, the motivations that fuelled his drive, and the strategies that led Wakefit to its current stature. From the tough decisions to the transformative moments, Chaitanya's story is a masterclass in turning adversity into an advantage. Join us as we dive into the narrative of Chaitanya's entrepreneurial journey and explore the grit, resilience, and insights that turned a vision into a successful venture. Subscribe to the show wherever you listen to it and sign up for The One Percent Project's "Think" newsletter at onepercent.live for curated content that adds value to your professional and personal development. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Chaitanya Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta In this conversation, he talks about: 00:00 Intro 02:19 Why is sleep important? 08:06 What was India's association with sleep and mattress before Wakefit? 12:24 Chaitanya's entrepreneurial journey: Setting up English classes in a garage as a youngster? Setting up a failed content startup with friends. Finding a job post his startup failure 32:32 Founder Market Fit 35:32 Building Wakefit: Is a startup an extreme expression of the founders? At what point did Chaitanyia and Ankit become bottlenecks in Wakefit's growth? Setting up internal feedback loops. 44:03 Marketing Vs Branding: One is built, and the other gets built. 49:36 How has packaging accelerated Wakefit's growth? 52:41 40 investor rejections- Chaitanya and Ankit built a business which didn't even have a category on Amazon. 55:35 Importance of capital allocation 57:04 Counterintuitive insights about D2C business. 58:15 How do you build a great company? 1:00:12 Identifying a Hero Product. 1:02:02 Is it service or product- that leads one to become an industry leader? 1:03:34 Competition. 1:06:11 What is the kindest thing anyone has done for Chaitanya? 1:08:59 Advice to your younger self. 1:09:28 His superpower. 1:09:50 Three Books he recommends
About Dhruvank Vidya: Dhruvank is the Head of Podcasts for Spotify India. Over a career spanning 25 years, he has launched several media and technology businesses and held leadership positions (CxO/ Business head) in digital media, content, television and technology companies like Star TV, Times of India group, NDTV Imagine/ Turner Broadcasting etc. In his entrepreneurial stint, Dhruvank co-founded ‘The Adaptation Company'-- a content company focused on book-to-film/TV adaptations. Dhruvank delves into key topics that shed light on his unique perspective. Drawing from his experiences, he shares valuable insights on decision-making, career choices, good workplace relationships, and effective team-building. Furthermore, Dhruvank emphasises the significance of grit, the balance between being a generalist and a specialist, and the power of a clear vision in leadership. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Dhruvank Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta In this conversation, he talks about: 00:00 Intro 01:53 How was life growing up? 02:40 What is the journey to becoming the head of the podcast at Spotify India? 04:47 What made you join Spotify? 05:57 What did your parents expect you to be? 06:44 What influence does IIM have in your life? 07:44 Do you attribute your success to your brilliance or your network? 08:52 Decision Making: You kicked off your career as a manufacturing consultant and moved into media, which is a significant jump- How do you reflect on it and study your decision-making? 10:26 What is your view on being a generalist Vs specialist? 13:11 You have been an entrepreneur and launched new businesses for MNCs. What is your counterintuitive insight about building a business? 14:31 What is the role of Ego in one's career? 15:23 Team Building: You have played a lot of team sports. What do you think about building a team? 17:06 What is your superpower? 18:07 What is the best leadership advice you have ever received? 19:13 Who is Dhruvank in a stressful environment? 19:57 What are your three productivity hacks? 20:50 Books, coffee and your walks- What is your relationship with books? And your passion for coffee? And your walks? 18:07 One advice that you would give to yourself? 24:31 If you had to work with one of these people, who would you choose, someone with grit or brilliance?
Listen to the entire conversation: Spotify: https://bit.ly/3pwiWwe YouTube: https://bit.ly/44bkR8s Apple: https://bit.ly/3NXQnkL Or available on all other platforms (The One Percent Project Podcast) Show notes & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Mayank
Listen to the entire conversation: Spotify: https://bit.ly/3pwiWwe YouTube: https://bit.ly/44bkR8s Apple: https://bit.ly/3NXQnkL Or available on all other platforms (The One Percent Project Podcast) Show notes & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Mayank
Listen to the entire conversation:Spotify: https://bit.ly/3pwiWweYouTube: https://bit.ly/44bkR8sApple: https://bit.ly/3NXQnkLOr available on all other platforms (The One Percent Project Podcast)Show notes & Transcript:https://bit.ly/TOP_Mayank
Listen to the entire conversation:Spotify: https://bit.ly/3pwiWweYouTube: https://bit.ly/44bkR8sApple: https://bit.ly/3NXQnkLOr available on all other platforms (The One Percent Project Podcast)Show notes & Transcript:https://bit.ly/TOP_Mayank
About Mayank Tiwari: Success in the textile industry is not just about fabrics and threads; it's about empowering communities and redefining the way we connect with our roots. Welcome to The One Percent Project, where we bring you the stories of exceptional leaders who have achieved extraordinary success in their fields. In this episode, we speak to Mayank Tiwari, Founder & CEO of ReshaMandi, a natural fibre venture from Bharat (India), along with my co-host Sarthak Ahuja. Sarthak is an Author, Virtual CFO, M&A expert, and ISB Gold Medalist. Mayank Tiwari's saga is one of resilience, ingenuity, and unwavering commitment to transforming the textile industry. As the mastermind behind ReshaMandi, he has forged a path where tradition intertwines seamlessly with innovation, revolutionising the way we perceive and engage with fabrics. Join us as we dive into the fascinating story of ReshaMandi. Mayank shares the challenges of the natural fibre industry, the social impact his company has made in the space, and the exciting future ahead. Listen in as Sarthak and I explore the origins of ReshaMandi, commitment to social welfare, and visionary path forging. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Mayank Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta In this conversation, he talks about: 00:00 Intro 02:49 India's association with natural fibre. 08:45 India's fibre consumption pattern and Challenges in scaling production of natural fibre. 19:20 How does fashion get influenced? 25:35 Reshamandi's focus areas and route to profitability. 40:12 Why is the mulberry leaf mentioned in the Vedas? 51:27 Why is Mayank and Saurabh best placed in building Reshamandi? 56:33 Will Reshmandi become a monopoly such as Amazon, where new players will find it harder to enter the space? 1:02:24 Why has Reshmandi expanded from silk to other natural fibres? 1:06:46 What are the available white spaces within the fabric/ textile industry? 1:09:33 Evolution and contribution of Fab India.
About Nuno Goncalves Pedro: In the realm of innovation and strategy, few individuals embody the true spirit of transformation, possessing a unique blend of strategic prowess, unwavering determination, and a passion for creating lasting impact. Nuno Goncalves Pedro, the co-founder of Chamaeleon and Strive Capital, epitomises this rare breed of visionary leaders. Welcome to the second part of our captivating series with the remarkable Nuno. In The One Percent Project episode, we continue our deep dive with him about carving a unique path in the venture capital landscape. In this second episode of the two-part series, he shares his insights and perspectives on building a venture capital fund, investing in start-ups, shedding light on his decision-making strategies and the meticulous analysis behind his investment decisions. As we delve further into this conversation, Nuno reveals his favourite books, productivity tools, and the mechanisms he employs to analyse his decisions- part one with Nuno. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Nuno_2 Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta In this conversation, he talks about: 00:00 Intro 01:32 Building Chamaeleon and decision framework of investing in start-ups. 07:18 Investing in consumer tech and the impact of AI. 11:13 What is his due diligence framework, and how do they analyse their decisions? 20:27 Three productivity tools 21:10 Three books 23:03 Advice to the younger self.
About Nuno Goncalves Pedro: In the realm of innovation and strategy, few individuals embody the true spirit of transformation, possessing a unique blend of strategic prowess, unwavering determination, and a passion for creating lasting impact. Nuno Goncalves Pedro, the co-founder of Chamaeleon and Strive Capital, epitomises this rare breed of visionary leaders. Welcome to The One Percent Project, where we delve into the minds of extraordinary individuals who have achieved remarkable success and made a significant impact in their fields. In this episode, we have the privilege of hosting a true thought leader, Nuno Goncalves Pedro. With a background that spans the realms of technology, strategy, and entrepreneurship for over two decades, Nuno has carved a unique path in the corporate world. As a former senior leader at McKinsey, specialising in Technology, Digital, Media, and Telecom, he has a wealth of experience guiding organisations through complex digital transformations. As a co-host of Tech Deciphered, a top 3% podcast globally, Nuno dives deep into the intricacies of the tech industry, shedding light on emerging trends and deciphering the complexities that shape our digital landscape. As a sought-after speaker, advisor, and board member, Nuno shares his strategic insights and invaluable expertise with audiences around the globe through his podcast. Join us in part one of this two-part series, to listen to Nuno's reflections on his career, his unique perception of adversity and how to deal with it, his experiences of staying in more than 35+ countries, his views on food as an art form, and much more. Get ready for an enlightening conversation that will leave you inspired, motivated, and armed with invaluable insights to unlock your own potential. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Nuno Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta In this conversation, he talks about: 00:00 Intro 02:06 His 25+ years of career in technology, investing and consulting. 04:29 How to catalyse adversity? 09:13 How to slow down and intensify focus? 15:12 Learnings from living in 35+ countries. 24:08 How love for food has influenced his career?
Listen to the full conversation: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Ce91ho YouTube: https://bit.ly/42hwfOo Apple: https://apple.co/42iwzfO Or available on all other platforms (The One Percent Project Podcast) Show notes & Transcript: https://lnkd.in/g5VfwBfp
Listen to the full conversation: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Ce91ho YouTube: https://bit.ly/42hwfOo Apple: https://apple.co/42iwzfO Or available on all other platforms (The One Percent Project Podcast) Show notes & Transcript: https://lnkd.in/g5VfwBfp
Listen to the full conversation:Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Ce91hoYouTube: https://bit.ly/42hwfOoApple: https://apple.co/42iwzfOOr available on all other platformsShow notes & Transcript:https://lnkd.in/g5VfwBfp
Listen to the full conversation:Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Ce91hoYouTube: https://bit.ly/42hwfOoApple: https://apple.co/42iwzfOOr available on all other platformsShow notes & Transcript:https://lnkd.in/g5VfwBfp
Listen to the full conversation:Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Ce91hoYouTube: https://bit.ly/42hwfOoApple: https://apple.co/42iwzfOOr available on all other platforms Show notes & Transcript:https://lnkd.in/g5VfwBfp
About Prasanna Sankar: What changes after one becomes a billionaire? How does one maintain a sense of purpose and drive after accumulating wealth? Welcome to The One Percent Project, where we continue our captivating conversation with Prasanna Sankar, the co-founder of Rippling, and a true trailblazer in the world of technology and entrepreneurship. In our first episode, we discovered Prasanna's early successes, his coding prowess, and his ability to identify and seize opportunities. We explored his insights on building and optimising for pace and efficiency and his views on the future of crypto. In part two of our conversation, we dive deeper into Prasanna's extraordinary life, understand how his world transformed after achieving billionaire status, the profound influence of Paul Graham's writings on his thinking, and the unique superpowers that have propelled him to great heights. He also shares his book recommendations and unveils his thoughts on productivity, providing counterintuitive insights on making the most of your time and achieving remarkable results. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Prasanna_2 Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta In this conversation, he talks about: 00:00 Intro 02:24 How has life changed after becoming a billionaire? 06:30 The impact of Paul Gramham's blogs and first principle thinking. 08:15 The balance between pace & efficiency. 13:44 His superpower 14:04 Three Books & Productivity Hacks 18:36 Moments that have defined his career. 19:57 Advice to his younger self.
About Prasanna Sankar: Few possess a rare combination of exceptional talent, entrepreneurial vision, and a relentless drive to push boundaries. My next guest on The One Percent Project, Prasanna Sankar, the co-founder of Rippling, is undoubtedly one such individual. In 2010, Prasanna co-founded Likealittle, a college campus social network that experienced an incredible surge, skyrocketing from 0 to 20 million page views in six weeks. Prasanna's coding prowess has earned him international recognition. Furthermore, during his college years, Prasanna held the esteemed rank-one position at TopCoder, solidifying his status as a true coding prodigy. In part one of this two-part series, listen in to learn about Prasanna's journey from TOPCoder to Microsoft, strategies for building and optimising for pace and efficiency, views on the future of crypto, the invaluable lessons learned along the way that help him identify the next big thing and much more Subscribe to the show wherever you listen to it and sign up for The One Percent Project's "Think" newsletter at onepercent.live for curated content that adds value to your professional and personal development. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Prasanna Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta In this conversation, he talks about: 00:00 Intro 02:03 Growing up in India. 05:00 The role of confidence in early life. 08:15 The balance between pace & efficiency. 16:05 Meta, Microsoft and Google 20:22 Future & Brilliance of Bitcoin. 27:36 The power of having a free mind.
About Susan Zhang: Leadership is not just about achieving success but about inspiring and empowering others to do the same. My next guest on The One Percent Project, Susan Zhang, embodies that. An exemplary business executive and visionary entrepreneur, Susan has a remarkable career spanning three continents. With an impressive legacy through her work with Google and ByteDance (TikTok), Amazon, and Canva, she effectively combines technical prowess with commercial acumen. Susan has an exceptional track record and has become a prominent figure in the global business, making her a powerful catalyst for positive change. Susan's passion for driving China-Australia linkage led her to found her own company, assist UoW's 2015 rebrand in the Chinese market, and become a Technology Evangelist for the Australia China Millennial Project. She is a published author, a dynamic, inspirational speaker, and a valued mentor for young entrepreneurs worldwide. Join me in this episode of The One Percent Project as I speak to Susan about her unconventional career trajectory, leadership style, her book ‘Life Outside My Comfort Zone: Hup Draak!,' and her strategies for a successful career. Subscribe to the show wherever you listen to it and sign up for The One Percent Project's "Think" newsletter at onepercent.live for curated content that adds value to your professional and personal development. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Susan Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta In this conversation, she talks about: 00:00 Intro 1:26 Her journey from China to working for Google, ByteDance, Amazon and Canva by age 30. 4:33 How did she navigate through different roles at different organisations? 7:22 Her book “Life Outside My Comfort Zone: Hup Draak!”. 9:46 Productivity tool. 11:48 Books & Blogs that have influenced. 14:22 Advice to her younger self.
About Karthik Reddy: What does it take to identify and back the next big thing in the world of startups? How do venture capitalists navigate the complex web of risks and rewards to make successful investments? Welcome to The One Percent Project, where we continue our exploration of the world of startups and venture capital with the visionary Karthik Reddy, the co-founder and Managing Partner of Blume Ventures. In part 1 of our conversation, we learned about Karthik's upbringing, the values he has instilled in Blume Ventures, his perspective on the role of venture capital in fostering innovation, the X Unicorn hypothesis, and more. In part 2 of our conversation with Karthik, we delve deeper into the world of venture capital. Join us as we explore Karthik's approach to investing, his counterintuitive insight about venture capital, how he identifies exceptional founders, concepts and frameworks that have influenced him in his career and much more. Tune in to The One Percent Project for another engaging conversation with Karthik. Don't forget to subscribe to our "Think" newsletter at onepercent.live, which brings highly curated content that adds value to your professional and personal development. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_KarthikReddy_2 Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta In this conversation, he talks about: 00:00 Intro 02:04 Why he built Blume? 08:13 Counterintuitive insight about venture capital 12:34 How he evaluates founders and ideas. 18:58 Three books 20:44 Three productivity tools 23:31 Kindest thing anyone has done for him. 25:27 What advice will he give to his younger self?
About Karthik Reddy: Is venture capital about funding the next unicorn or backing exceptional founders who are hardwired to think differently and bet against conventional wisdom? My next guest on The One Percent Project is the humble, decisive communicator and counterintuitive thinker Karthik Reddy. Karthik is the co-founder and Managing Partner at Blume Ventures, one of India's pre-eminent early-stage venture funds. At over $600 Million in AUM, Blume has made 150+ investments across three funds. Karthik also serves as the Chairperson of the Executive Committee at the IVCA (India's Venture and Alternative Capital Association) - India's apex association for Venture & PE Funds, working alongside the Indian Government in policy & regulatory issues concerning Alternative Investment Funds. In this 2 part series, I speak to Karthik about his upbringing and the values he has infused into Blume over the years. Listen in to learn Karthik's insights on resilience in building his career, the X-Unicorn hypothesis, why exceptional founders are mutants, how he assesses risk and much more. Subscribe to the show where ever you are listening to it and sign up to The One Percent Project's "Think" newsletter at onepercent.live, which brings highly curated content that adds value to your professional and personal development. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_KarthikReddy Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta In this conversation, he talks about: 00:00 Intro 02:39 His journey from Chennai to Wharton 10:50 The role resilience has played in building his career and Blume? 16:21 The X-Unicorn hypothesis and why exceptional founders are mutants. 21:32 How does he assess risk? 28:56 Do founders need to disapprove or disprove your long-term held market or industry hypothesis to get you interested? 31:25 The power of communication
About State Bank of India: It is hard to imagine an elephant dancing, but if that elephant is the State Bank of India, SBI, as popularly known, you are in for a surprise/ delight. SBI is India's biggest bank, with 450M+ customers. As an Indian, you may be able to rattle 100s of challenges and inefficiencies of SBI, but its contribution towards India's growth is second to none. SBI has groomed the finest talents and established financial services and products that has paved the path for other Indian banks. Though established in 1955, but its creation dates back to the Mughals and the East India Company. There are several case studies about SBI cards, insurance and other financial products, but a less talked about aspect is its talent. There are innumerable examples of SBI chairmen who, in an unassuming manner, have led the bank through its ups and downs to where it stands today. Now in the 21st century, with the advent of Neo Banks, SBI has brought YONO (You Only Need One), its digital app play, to the arena and reason I looked into SBI's fascinating history and YONO is because I read about YONO in Weekly Olio, an online weekly newsletter written by Mohit & Peeyush. So, I invited them to co-host this conversation with me. We kick this off with Mohit & Peeyush introducing themselves and talking about the exceptional growth they have witnessed with the newsletter. Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta
About Brendan Boyle: Have you ever wondered how your favourite toys end up in your hands? What makes toy companies such as Lego, Hasbro, and Mattel market leaders, and how have products such as Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars stayed evergreen in a highly competitive industry? My next guest on The One Percent Project is Brendan Boyle. Brendan is a toy inventor, an adjunct professor at Stanford, and the Founder of the IDEO Play Lab. He is also the inventor of the world-famous Jumperoo. Brendan consults companies about redesigning their organisational behaviour to include space for play and co-authored the award-winning encyclopedia of never-before-seen inventions, The Klutz Book of Inventions. Listen in to learn Brendan's insights on designing and working in the toy industry, the value of divergent thinking, how Lego & Mattel have kept themselves relevant and much more. How Lego clicked: the super brand that reinvented itself. Subscribe to the show where ever you are listening to it and sign up to The One Percent Project's "Think" newsletter at onepercent.live, which brings highly curated content that adds value to your professional and personal development. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Brendan Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta In this conversation, he talks about: 00:00 Intro 03:44 How designing a toy is similar to design thinking? 04:44 What is the funnel from idea to sales for a toy? 08:15 How divergent thinking generates better ideas? 09:45 Are toys actual concepts in the world? 11:15 How does the toy industry work? 13:10 Why should you read about the history of your industry? 14:45 How have Lego and Barbie (Mattel) kept themselves relevant? 16:19 Why does a global design firm such as IDEO like to hire T-shaped people? 18:47 What has he learnt as an entrepreneur? 21:22 Three books 22:53 Advice to your younger self?
About Aditi Sharma: Aditi Sharma is the co-founder of Grow Commerce. Aditi started her career as a chip designer, did her MBA, and joined McKinsey. Then, she chose to join Grab. When Aditi joined Grab, not only was she expecting her first child, but Grab was in overdrive to enter and grow across South East Asian markets while competing against formidable competitors such as Uber and gojek. It would have been a super caustic high-pressure environment to drive and deliver consistently. Eventually, Grab acquired Uber's South East Asian business in 2018. So Aditi took a leap of faith by not joining Google, but Grab, which at the time did not even have maternity coverage insurance. That was a bold move, especially for an expecting mother. Women often hesitate to take such steps because they feel unsure about managing their personal and professional lives. Therefore, Aditi's journey matters to all who must make bold moves and walk the unchartered path. I recently listened to an interview by Ginni Rometty about her journey to becoming IBM's first female CEO in 2012. She is another corporate leader who exemplifies bold and strategic decision-making. She was born in 1957 in Chicago. Ginni grew up in a family that struggled financially, but through her perseverance, she attended Northwestern University and earned a degree in computer science and electrical engineering in 1979. After graduation, she started her career as a systems engineer at General Motors Institute (now Kettering University). In 1981, Ginni joined IBM as a systems engineer. She quickly rose through the ranks and held several leadership positions in IBM's consulting, services, and sales organizations. In 2009, she was named senior vice president and group executive for IBM's sales, marketing, and strategy division. In 2012, Ginni was appointed CEO of IBM, becoming the first woman to lead the company. She oversaw IBM's transformation from a hardware-focused company to services and software-focused company. Ginni stepped down as the CEO of IBM in April 2020 and was succeeded by Arvind Krishna. Today, she serves on the board of directors of several companies, including JPMorgan Chase and the Mayo Clinic. I recommend reading her latest book, Good Power: Leading Positive Change in Our Lives, Work, and World. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Career_Aditi Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta
About Rajan Singh: In the modern world, where ample distractions capture our attention and constantly pull it in multiple directions, staying focused and achieving our goals can be a significant challenge. Moreover, with the rise of remote work and the shift towards an increasingly digital lifestyle, maintaining focus and productivity has become even more crucial. My next guest on The One Percent Project is a discipline and routine fanatic, productivity expert and entrepreneur Rajan Singh. Rajan is a graduate of IIT Kanpur and a former Indian Police Service officer who served as the Trivandrum Police Commissioner. But after a few years, Rajan felt a sense of intellectual stagnation in his job, and he decided to quit and restart his career. He then pursued an MBA from Wharton Business School and worked as a consultant with McKinsey in New York before returning to India as an investment professional at New Silk Route, a billion-dollar private equity fund. However, his restlessness did not end there, and he eventually became an entrepreneur, founding a habit-building startup called HabitStrong. At HabitStrong, Rajan helps people improve their lives by inculcating focus, self-discipline, and good habits. Listen in to learn Rajan's insights and strategies for achieving goals and maintaining focus on the things that matter most, his views on entrepreneurship, building products within HabitStrong, his ideas about self-doubt and boredom, and much more. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Rajan Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta
About Raja Ganapathy: What is so unique about Ogilvy, Hindustan Unilever, and Sequoia capital that they have stayed market-relevant and built and enabled iconic brands? How Don Valentine, the grandfather of Venture Capital and founder of Sequoia, built a generational brand. If brands and brand-building intrigue, you listen on. My next guest on The One Percent Project is a brand builder, a voracious reader and an eternal optimist Raja Ganapathy. Raja spent his conceptual years learning the ropes of marketing at Ogilvy on accounts such as Hindustan Unilever, and his defining stint was as the Chief Marketing Officer at Sequoia Capital India. At Sequoia, Raja worked with industry-defying founders of Byju's, Free Charge, Healthkart and many more. Today, Raja is the founding partner at Spring Marketing Capital, a skin-in-the-game marketing value-added investment firm to build the brands of tomorrow. Listen in to learn how Raja navigated through his career from Ogilvy to Spring, what is the new world order of marketing, are Elon Musk, Steve Jobs and Kunal Shah brands or founders and much more. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Raja Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta
About Abhay Maheshwari: My first guest on the career series is Abhay Maheshwari. I met Abhay through the Spotify India and Ideabrew studio LevelUp program for podcasters. I was fascinated by Abhay's story. He took to storytelling, open mics and podcasting only after completing his engineering degree and landing a full-time job. Despite being encouraged and nudged to participate in drama, skits, and cultural activities, he hesitated to deviate from the traditional career path in school and college. Listen in to learn how Abhay became an award-winning storyteller, nationally featured writer and a TEDx speaker. If you have any feedback about this conversation, speaker and topic recommendations, you can drop me a line at pritish@onepercent.live. Subscribe to the show where ever you are listening to it and sign up to The One Percent Project's "Think" newsletter at onepercent.live, which brings highly curated content that adds value to your professional and personal development. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Deepit Follow & Subscribe: YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2
About Guy Kawasaki: My next guest on The One Percent Project is charismatic, enticing and Apple's 2nd evangelist Guy Kawasaki. Guy is the chief evangelist of Canva and the creator of the Remarkable People podcast. He was a trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation. He was a trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation. He has authored Wise Guy, The Art of the Start 2.0, The Art of Social Media, Enchantment, and eleven other books. In this conversation, Guy reflects on his career that has spanned over 40 years, from counting and selling diamonds, being an evangelist at Apple, how great products and leaders polarise people, the relation between humour and intelligence, the emergence of ChatGPT, Nithin Kamath, the CEO of Zerodha and much more. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Guy Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta
Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL): Hindustan Unilever is one of India's most valuable companies. The book “The CEO Factory: Management Lessons from Hindustan Unilever” by Sudhir Sitapati is a handbook of counterintuitive management insights that he learnt over 20+ years at HUL. The book covers HUL's 100+ years of history in India and its management lessons in marketing, product, pricing, sales, cost, HR, and company values. Mind map of all my notes from the book: https://bit.ly/TOP_TheCEOFactory Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta
About Deepit Purkayastha: My next guest on The One Percent Project is Deepit Purkayastha. He is the co-founder of Inshorts & Public app. Deepit's entrepreneurial journey began in an IIT Kharagpur dorm room with his co-founders Azhar & Anunay. 10 years later, Inshorts is India's #1 short news app, with 10 million+ active users, and Public App is India's largest platform for hyperlocal content, with 50 million+ active users. In this conversation, Deepit talks about how he convinced his parents to take a gap year to pursue Inshorts, his counter-intuitive insights about the Indian consumer, why Inshorts & Public App are unique, their product moat, and much more. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_Deepit Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta 00:00 Intro 01:24 Is a start-up an extreme expression of founders' nature? 02:48 How he convinced his parents to take a gap year to build Inshorts? 04:19 The importance of timing in launching products. 11:30 Why is Inshorts & Public App unique, and what is their product moat?
About Aditi Shrivastava: My next guest The One Percent Project is the very talented and driven Aditi Srivastava. Aditi is Co-Founder and CEO at Pocket Aces, India's largest socially distributed content network, which includes five diverse brands: FilterCopy (short fiction), Dice Media (multi-episode web series), Gobble (lifestyle), Nutshell (infotainment), and Jambo (young-adult animation). Pocket Aces also operates Clout India's largest digital influencer management practice. The company incubated Loco, India's largest homegrown game streaming and esports app, which was spun off successfully into a separate entity in 2021. Sales are a critical contributor to the success of any business. They are the source of revenue generation, but more importantly, they help build and sustain relationships with clients. Sales offer crucial insight into the efficiencies of a company's marketing and product development initiatives. A competent sales force may assist a company in reaching its objectives by spotting and capitalizing on new possibilities and cultivating and maintaining connections with important clients. Undoubtedly, sales are crucial in any business's long-term existence and expansion. But how does one build a robust sales force? In this contemplative conversation, Aditi shares her understanding of sales through years of hands-on experience in building sales businesses, the role of storytelling in sales, striking a balance between creativity and numbers, the difference between sales and marketing units, building sales teams through the years, if founders should be key salespersons, and much more. Key Take Aways & Transcript: https://bit.ly/TOP_AditiShrivastava Follow & Subscribe: WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/TOP_WA2 YouTube: https://bit.ly/TOP_Youtube LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/TOP_LinkedIn Twitter: https://bit.ly/TOP_Twitter1 Instagram: https://bit.ly/TOP_Insta In this conversation, she talks about: 00:00 Intro 02:15 A day in Aditi's life 02:50 How as humans, we are constantly selling 04:31 Role of storytelling in sales. 06:22 The balance between creativity and numbers. 07:56 If all salespersons are extroverts? 10:18 Where she draws the line between sales and marketing functions. 13:11 Her insights on building a sales team. 21:09 If she thinks founders can oust revenue generation or business creation from other key members in the initial days? 26:48 How she manages sales rejections? 31:03 The nicest thing anyone has done for her. 32:09 Her legacy.
About Jeremy Utley: My first guest on The One Percent Project this year is the exuberant Jeremy Utley. Jeremy is a Stanford Adjunct, a celebrated keynote speaker, and co-author of the brilliant book "Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters.". Jeremy co-teaches two wonderful courses at Stanford, Leading Disruptive Innovation (d.leadership) and LaunchPad, which focus on creating real-world impact with design and innovation tools. Jeremy intended to use his time in Africa and South America as a springboard for a career in economic development when he applied to Stanford's Graduate School of Business, but a contact with the d.school while working at an Indian start-up altered his plans. He learned throughout his time as a post-graduate design fellow that how he worked was more significant than what he accomplished. Today, Jeremy works to assist individuals in transforming their established self-perceptions and learn, like him, that it is possible to contribute creatively to the world without being exceptional. His book “Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters,” is a product of his journey in helping people develop the skill of generating new problem-solving ideas. Jeremy believes one can cultivate the habit of generating ideas with practice and techniques he explores in his book, much like any other habit. Once that is achieved, innovation flows naturally. The conversation yielded great insights on practising the meta-skill of idea generation, the novel concepts of idea ratio, idea quota, and innovation sandwich to facilitate business innovation in organizations, attracting and retaining innovative people, finding better problems to solve, and much more. Join our No-Spam WhatsApp group Bonus Chapter: How to Think Like Bezos and Jobs? Entrepreneur.com: How to generate 100s of ideas in 1 hour? In this conversation, he talks about: When it comes to creativity, why is quantity more important than quality? Why shouldn't you be judging yourself when coming up with ideas? What does he mean by "every problem is an idea problem"? About Ideaflow What is an Idea Ratio- How do you calculate it? How does Idea flow co-relate with the success of an organisation? How to learn creativity and turn it into a daily activity? How to make a hackathon an effective way to drive innovation? How to run effective brainstorming sessions? How to identify, recruit, and retain innovative people? How to use Ideaflow as a metric for organisations, companies and startups? How is storytelling tied to Ideaflow? What is his counter-intuitive insight from teaching entrepreneurship? What is the nicest thing anyone has done for him?
About Matt Abrahams:Today on The One Percent Project, I am speaking to Matt Abrahams. Matt teaches organizational behaviour and strategic communication at Stanford. He is the author of the excellent book Speaking Up without Freaking Out and host of the Stanford GSB podcast ‘Think Fast Talk Smart'. Matt is a passionate, collaborative, and innovative educator and coach. He has published widely on strategic communication, cognitive planning, persuasion, and interpersonal communication. Prior to teaching, Matt held senior leadership positions in several leading software companies, where he created and ran global learning and development teams. Matt has worked with executives to help prepare and present keynote addresses and IPO road shows, conduct media interviews, and deliver TED talks.Strategic communication can alter people, teams, and organisations. One who recognises the value of communication realises the importance of honing personal and the team's communication skills. Good communicative skills increase employability, morale, engagement, and productivity, along with improved teamwork. Effective workplace communication contributes to improved performance of individuals, teams, and organisations. But the question remains, how does one achieve effective communication? Matt helps people find that answer. In this engaging conversation with Matt, he talks about strategic communication, who is an effective communicator, the communication styles of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Warren Buffet, his favourite communicators, the role of confidence in effective communication and much more. Key Highlights & Transcript: http://bit.ly/TOP_MattAbrahams In this conversation, he talks about:00:00 Intro 02:42 Counterintuitive insights about strategic communication? 03:37 How is an effective communicator? 04:22 What excites him about teaching? 05:40 Is it hard to teach strategic communication? 07:52 The role of storytelling communication? 09:44 The communication style of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffet. 12:41 When you need to speak spontaneously, how do you manage your anxiety? 15:54 How can founders have an effective communication strategy and storytelling framework? 19:32 The impact of martial arts in Matt's strategic communication. 21:53 The importance of the environment in effective communication.23:12 Communicators Matt appreciates.24:43 The importance of confidence in effective communication.26:23 What is an introvert's strength in communicati
About Sandeep Jethwani:"It's not how much money you make, but how much money you keep, how hard it works for you, and how many generations you keep it for." -Robert KiyosakiToday on The One Percent Project, I am speaking to Sandeep Jethwani. Sandeep is the co-founder of dezerv. dezerv. is an expert-led wealth creation platform that aims to deliver sustainable returns to its clients through its unique Integrated Portfolio Approach (IPA). dezerv. was founded in 2021 and today it has 1,000 crores under management.In this engrossing conversation, Sandeep talks about his dezerv. journey, the role of patience in creating long-term wealth, building a brand that consumers trust, the role of mentors and much more.Some Key Highlights:We assume building wealth is a lot about the returns we generate but the true trick to growing meaningful wealth is not to lose it. Some of the folks who have made a significant amount of capital have not lost a meaningful amount of money in the worst of times.The interesting dichotomy of investing today is it's easier to figure out where to invest but harder to make money.Before you trust a brand, you trust the people behind the brand.In this conversation, he talks about:00:00 Intro01:44 His counterintuitive insight about wealth management? 02:56 How did he come up with the name? 04:56 How does one build long-term wealth? 07:15 Where is India in its wealth creation journey, and how is dezerv. adding value to it? 12:55 What is the importance of patience in building wealth? 17:48 How does he think about building a brand? 25:00 The secret sauce of Zerodha.28:28 The role of mentors.Links:Sandeep: LinkedIn
About Shreyaa Kapoor:Today on The One Percent Project, I am speaking to Shreyaa Kapoor. Shreyaa kicked off her career at Bain consulting, went on to become a content strategist and influencer with 650K+ Instagram followers and was recognised by LinkedIn as a Top Voice for 2022.This is a fascinating conversation with a young content influencer about why and how she chose to leave consulting and join the creator economy. Among all the insights and anecdotes that Shreyaa shares, the one that stood out was her father's advice "If your content and work can easily be copy pasted then you are not creating good enough content." Some Key Highlights:You need to have patience and the courage to experiment. There will be content pieces that will not work out while you're experimenting but that's the price you pay to stand out and be original.If your content and work can easily be copy pasted, then you are not creating good enough content.Content quality is more important than content frequency. In this conversation, she talks about:Her journey from college to becoming a content creator.Her LinkedIn Vs Instagram content strategy.Her relationship with money, given her Instagram content, is about personal finance.How did she kick off her financial journey?As a content creator, how do you create a legacy?Her lessons as a content influencer?How is Gary Vee different from Ali Abdaal?Links:Shreeya's Instagram | LinkedIn
Thomas Edison once said that Genius is prolonged patience. I am patient enough to be sure. Today on The One Percent Project, I am speaking to Anand Jain. He is the Co-founder of CleverTap. CleverTap is the world's leading customer engagement and retention platform, valued at USD 775M and backed by Sequoia India, Tiger Global and others. In this fascinating conversation, Anand talks about how curiosity and constant tinkering of an average student from a humble background have led him to build multiple successful businesses, the value of thinking in first principles, how understanding the customer is selling, and much more.Some Key Highlights:Learning Framework: There is a certain joy in figuring out things on your own from first principles. A learning framework is- Do it as long as it doesn't kill you, then come back and look at what you've learned and can you have a compounding effect on what you've learnt?Founders: Technical founders typically start from the problem statement as opposed to non-technical founders, who start from the market opportunity or the competitors in the space.Teams: Your competitors will change, markets will change, and products will evolve. It's the people who will decide whether you win or lose.In this conversation, he talks about:00:00 Intro01:52 Early life: One bedroom rented house, an average student to co-founder of Clevertap. How do you reflect on it?12:52 How is understanding the customer- selling?16:18 What is your learning framework- How do you indulge in learning something new?19:03 Technical founders - how has the experience been?22:54 How do you differentiate yourself?28:25 Being a product-first company- what does that mean?32:58 Building for a niche/ focus group Vs for everyone?36:02 What do you think about building a team?39:16 Key learnings from Moments of Truth?41:29 Views on Elon Musk?Links:Anand JainMoments of Truth
Royal Enfield:When Vikram Lal, CEO & Founder of The Eicher Group, bought the Royal Enfield brand in 1994, the company was already losing money and market share. Product, operations, management, marketing and sales were facing issues. Many Eicher CEOs tried to revive the brand but failed to get Enfield back to its glorious old days. The company was about to shut Enfield when Siddhartha Lal, Vikram's 26-year-old son, put his hand up to revive Enfield. This is a mini-episode on how Siddhartha took Royal Enfield from the brink of bankruptcy to becoming a lifestyle brand and India's first global consumer brand. Royal Enfield is The Oldest Motorcycle Brand in Continuous Production. It found its origin in a British needle-making factory in the late 1800s. In 1901, the first Royal Enfield motorcycle was unveiled. The company made its way to the Indian market in 1949 and later set up a JV with Madras motors. The British arm of the company over the years was unable to sustain itself and eventually shut down, but the Indian JV business chugged along.In India, Royal Enfield is a cult, not just a motorcycle company. It is as urban a brand as rural. It was brought to India by the Brits, adopted by the Indian army and police, got popular among the socially powerful Zamindars- landlords in the 1960s. Today it is a social icon among millennials. When Siddhartha signed up for the job, he faced the Harley Davidson dilemma if you innovate, you upset the fans, and if you don't, your brand dies. So he positioned Royal Enfield as a lifestyle brand and kept its classic design and iconic engine thump. The new Royal Enfield was about independence, passion and freedom. This attracted the youth. They cared less about performance and mileage and more about being a part of a 100- year old nostalgia. They bought the new Royal Enfield because of the old one. He went on to take serval other counterintuitive decisions. For example, he built a new engine for Enfield, which was not a popular decision among Enfield fans. He chose to shut down the newly inaugurated Jaipur plant and kept the 50-year-old Chennai plant running. Siddartha pushed for international penetration into the U.S., Australia, Thailand and the U.K.As of June 2022, Royal Enfield's domestic sales increased by 40% YoY. There is a long way to go for Enfield, but Siddhathra has been able to revive and re-position Enfield as India's first global lifestyle brand. If you found this interesting, head on to reading Amrit Raj's book, Indian Icon: A Cult Called Royal Enfield.
About Peter Wang:"Program maintenance is an entropy-increasing process, and even its most skillful execution only delays the subsidence of the system into unfixable obsolescence." — Frederick P. Brooks Jr., The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, 1975. Simple put, all it means is once you build software and keep making changes to it. Its quality will degrade and eventually degrade to a point where it becomes unusable. Today on The One Percent Project, I am speaking to Peter Wang. Peter is the Chief Technology Officer at Buzzfeed, overseeing Product Management, Engineering, Design, and Data teams across all portfolio brands. Peter has built both consumer and enterprise products and fundraised from a diverse range of investors across industries—health (The Mighty, backed by GGVC, Upfront, and WPP Health), SaaS (Buddy Media, backed by Greylock, acquired by Salesforce), media & e-commerce (Refinery29, backed by Stripes, WPP, Scripps).Peter, in this conversation, talks about his journey as a CTO, leadership vs management, and his delegation mechanism, which Keith Rabois outlined in his essay How to be an effective executive and what has been learnt as an angel investor. Some Key Highlights:Buddy Media was acquired by Salesforce. I remember being there after it was acquired by Salesforce. And I realized that what we have built wasn't particularly the most technologically robust advanced futuristic version of it. but it was a combination of the right set of capabilities slash features that the clients need combined with the right marketing.Emotion has so much more decision-making power than we even understand.Culture is based on identity. Culture is based on values. Culture is embedded into our decision-making, even though we cannot articulate or quantify it when we talk to people.In this conversation, she talks about:00:00 Intro02:13 How does one know the role they play beyond their title?04:56 Leadership Vs Management is there a difference?06:30 As a CTO, how do you build an intelligent and practical system without being too futuristic?10:32 Delegation: Your views?13:56 Is there a difference between a CTO and a VP of engineering?17:24 90-day plan, when you kick start in a new role. The 3 Ps- Double-click on that.21:42 Is technology the secret sauce of Buzz Feed's success?24:58 What can data not do?29:38 What have you learnt as an angel investor?Links:The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software EngineeringKeith Rabois Essay 3: How to be an Effective Executive
Generalist Vs Specialist:This mini-episode stemmed from my discussion with Sidu Ponnappa. Sidu is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor. He says the generalist Vs specialist discussion is misleading. It is better to analyse someone as objective-oriented or activity oriented. One can choose either not both at the same time. These days there is a debate, especially among the younger talent pool, about being a generalist or a specialist. There is a popular book on this topic by David Epstein called Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. Epstein argues against specialisation early on in one's life and makes a case for "Range" to gather as many skills and experiences as you can and later to specialise based on your strengths.What got me thinking is, does the brain have a generalist vs specialist evolution, and do Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Michael Angelo, and other achievers have a generalist or a specialist mindset? It turns out that the brain goes through a generalist and specialist evolution cycle between early childhood and adulthood. A child is born with 100 billion neurons. These neurons communicate with each other through a structure called synapse. During infancy, the brain experiences a large amount of growth. As a result, there is an explosion of synapse formation between neurons during early brain development. This is called synaptogenesis.Synapse growth is critical in learning, memory formation, and adaptation early in life. Around 2 to 3 years of age, the number of synapses hits a peak. Just after this peak, the brain starts to remove synapses that it no longer needs. A synapse can either be strengthened or weakened based on its use. Synapses that are frequently used grow and strengthen and the ones which are not used are removed by the brain. The process of removing synapses is called Synaptic pruning.Going back to our business world, the brain begins its journey as a generalist, adds as many synapses as it can early on and then switches to a specialist mode where it starts pruning, killing, synapses that show low or no use. If you consider the journeys of Warren Buffet, who made his first investment at the age of 11, Bill Gates, by the age of 19, had more than 10,000 hours of coding under his belt, Michael Angelo became an artist by the age of 13 and there a numerous such examples of high achievers who started honing their crafts in their teens. David Epstein talks about Roger Freder as a generalist because he dabbled into skiing, wrestling, swimming and skateboarding. He played basketball, handball, tennis, table tennis, and soccer at school. It was closer to his teens that Roger picked up tennis. Maybe this is an example of synaptic pruning where the brain kills the less used synapses. Now can you and I pick up tennis in our twenties or thirties? Sure we can! But it will potentially be 5 times harder than someone who has worked on their serve and backhand since early childhood. Our schooling system pushes us to be a generalist when it should provide us with the environment in our teens to be a specialist and focus on activities and subjects we enjoy. We can't say for sure if synaptogenesis is a generalist function or synapse pruning is a specialist function of the brain. Still, it does indicate that the brain's development has a generalist to specialist evolution cycle.I found the topic valuable not only to get a better understanding of my strengths and weakness but also the formative process that my little one is going through.If you like this mini-episode, share it with someone who would find it valuable. You can drop me a line at pritish@onepercent.live. Until next time.
About Sidu Ponnappa:About 90% of startups fail. 10% of startups fail within the first year. Failure is most common for startups during years two through five. Given such odds, why does one choose to be a founder?Today on The One Percent Project, I am speaking to Sidu Ponnappa. Sidu is a serial entrepreneur and an angel investor. His startup C42 Engineering was acquired by GO-JEK in 2015, with C42's founding team joining GO-JEK's board of directors. GO-JEK grew 900X in 18 months and became Indonesia's first unicorn in 2017. Sidu has experienced building and scaling businesses as a founder, CEO, and head of engineering, sales, marketing and HR. This is a no-noise just signal conversation where Sidu shares his observations on decision-making, why generalist vs specialist is a flawed concept, the probability of building a successful startup, why angel investing is not investing and much more.Some Key Highlights:The best executors are people who are activity oriented because they've been practising that activity forever. Therefore they're really good at it. People who are objective oriented are great at wrangling reality in certain ways and making decisions and operating across boundaries. People who pick activities are just really good at those activities. So if you need to write great copy, you need to hire someone who writes copy all day.If you are building a sustainable business and someone else is building an unsustainable business and the two are in competition, you winning is improbable. It's not that it hasn't happened, but it would be exceptional.The entropy of any complex system always increases. The entropy of society always increases the entropy of the laws of a country always increases. As things get more complex, more conflicts emerge. Unless the system is static. Its entropy will increase.In this conversation, she talks about:00:00 Intro01:38: Learning and experience being a founder?02:01 Lessons and observation as a leaders05:13 Why a generalist Vs specialist discussion is flawed?09:47 Why should you hire someone who is objective-oriented?10:14 Twitter tread on "Obvious Startup Truths" by Sidu14:13 Founders mindset19:23 Lessons from Angel Investing24:10 Being acquired by GO-JEK32:03 Are there 10x developers?32:19 Why does the entropy of complex systems deteriorate?34:55 Impact of reading
About Haldiram's:Hello everyone, I am kicking off a mini-series based on the research I do for The One Percent Project conversations.Prep for every guest conversation leads me into some fascinating rabbit holes about people, companies and industries. So, I plan to share some of these stories and insights through this mini-series. I hope you enjoy them. Here is the first one. While doing my research on Ahana Gautam and Open Secret, which is on a mission to un-junk the Indian snack industry, I stumbled upon the Namkeen Industry of India. Namkeen in Hindi means snack. It is a $ 15 billion industry in India. No conversation on namkeens would be complete without mentioning, Haldiram's, India's No.1 Namkeen brand. Haldiram's 85+ years of history is an MBA in itself. It is fascinating to learn how Gangabhishenji Agarwal, fondly known as Haldiram, in 1918 kicked off the making of a Rs 5000 Cr, USD ~600M, brand, which is now a household name in India.Haldiram was a school dropout who started working at his father's bhujia shop early in his life and eventually became an outlier among ~300 other bhujia sellers in Bikaner through product innovation, branding, marketing, pricing and opportunistic expansion.Production InnovationHaldiram started his journey from his family snack stall in Bhujiya Bazar in Bikaner. He reinvented his aunt's bhujia recipe to what we know as Haldiram's bhujia. He made it with moth beans, a type of lentil. This changed the taste and made the bhujia more crispy. The new bhujia was an instant hit among consumers.Branding/ Marketing:He named the bhujia "Dungar Sev" after the name of then popular Maharaja Dungar Singha. Here is a great example of Influencer Marketing from the 1930s.Pricing:Bhujia was a commodity. But given the popularity of "Dungar Sev", Haldiram raised the price from 2 paise/kg to 5 paise/kg. It made Haldiram's bhujia a premium product, and sales kept growing.Expansion:From 1937 to 2000, Haldiram's had grown to 4 cities Bikaner, Calculta, Nagpur and Delhi. Expansion into Nagpur was a challenge and an opportunity. Nagpur or the whole of Maharashtra, a state in India, in the 1960s, was not interested in bhujia and was not exposed to many snacks.In the 2000s, they diversified into sweets, which brought the next age of growth for Haldiram's. They went on to add 400+ products which include snacks, sweets, cookies, pickles and much more. They also went international and set up a base in the US, Canada, UK, UAE, Sri Lanka and Thailand.Today, Haldiram's valuation has crossed $3 Billion, and the business has now spread to 80+ countries. Haldiram's present-day success is not only the outcome of Gangabhisenji's courage to break out and try something new but also the vision his sons and grandsons have had in this 85-year journey. I will stop there; let you ponder how a bhujia wala from Bikaner landed up, creating a Namkeen empire. However, the journey of building the empire has not been a straight line. If you found this interesting, refer to Ajuniorvc.com's blog on Haldiram's and the book Bhujia Barons. If you liked this mini-episode, share it with someone who would find it valuable. You can drop me a line at pritish@onepercent.live and tell me how else will be interesting to look into. Until next time.
About Ahana Gautam:Indians love their snacks. We have grown up having our samosas, chaats, namkeens and mithais. There are hundreds of local and national snack brands in India. The Indian snacking industry crossed an annual sales of $14 billion in 2020 and is projected to grow by $2.88 billion from 2022 to 2026. While snacks do magic for our tastebuds, they dont always work wonders for our health. Today on The One Percent Project, I am speaking to Ahana Gautam. She is the CEO & Co-Founder of Open Secret, a Harvard Business School and IIT Bombay alum. Open Secret is on a mission to un-junk the Indian snack industry. Some Key Highlights:We take creating a meaningful difference in the world as a responsibility, not a choice.Every business's biggest moat is its customer.Culture is the thread which helps companies scale. So without that thread, products won't exist.In this conversation, she talks about:00:00 Intro01:45 What makes Ahana a unique founder? 03:45 How has moving away from instant gratification helped her find her space in the world?05:15 How has attending Harvard and IIT impacted her thinking?08:11 How mothers are the north star for Open Secret?10:34 How does a business create moats? 13:39 How has Open Secret been able to penetrate beyond tier 1 cities in India?25:18 How does Ahana assess talent?27:10 How is Open Secret creating impact? Is it through culture or its products?
About James Keyes:My next guest on the One Percent Project is James W Keyes. James served as the Chief Executive Officer of 7-Eleven and chairman and CEO of Blockbuster. James graduated cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor's degree from the College of the Holy Cross. He also obtained an MBA from Columbia Business School in 1980. James is the founder of the 'Education is Freedom' foundationJoin our No-Spam WhatsApp groupIn this conversation, he talks about:How curiosity and adversity have helped him lead organisations such as 7-Eleven and Blockbuster?The need for entrepreneurial thinking within a corporation.The art of negotiation and its tenets. How has 7-Eleven been able to keep itself ahead of the curve, and why others have not been able to replicate its growth model. Why did he choose to join Blockbuster?Would Blockbuster be a different company if it had accepted to buy Netflix?Are the principles of leadership being disrupted by the new generation of leaders?Some Key Highlights:When you are hit by adversity, you can respond in two ways: You can have your head down and become the victim, or keep your head up and say I'll get through this and get to the other side. Most of the time, there's hidden learning, and there's a strength that comes from knowing that you were able to make it through to the other side. This gives you the quiet advantage over someone who hasn't had to endure the adversity.The idea of a corporate entrepreneur is almost an oxymoron. Unfortunately, many corporate cultures believe in conformity and force people into a norm, discouraging the outliers. The very definition of an entrepreneur is someone who sets out on their own as an individual and breaks the norms. In contrast, the definition of a corporation is coming together as one; it's a body, not an individual.Leadership is about adapting to change, and change happens every day. So whatever you learned about leadership last week, you might have to change it next week based on a new set of facts, people or circumstances.
About Sourjyendu Medda:My next guest on The One Percent Project is Sourjyendu Medda. Sourjyendu is the founder and Chief Business Officer at DealShare. After spending 15+ years with leading Retail and FMCG organisations such as Metro, Raymond and Britannia, Sourjyendu kicked off his startup journey at the age of 40 to build Bharat's first social e-commerce unicorn.Join our No-Spam WhatsApp groupIn this conversation, he talks about:How his experience with Britannia, Raymond and Metro helped him understand and build DealShare.Why has DealShare been able to penetrate a consumer segment that the retail and FMCG giants have not been able to connect with?How to build a consumer-centric business?Building and growing a network of community leaders.How to build an MVP - Minimum Viable Product?His leadership styleWhy is it hard to copy and compete with DealShare?Some Key Highlights:Value creation comes only through building disruptive solutions because another copy can't create value.Communication is critical. However powerful a product may be, if it is not publicised, there will be no market for the product. Communication should be simple, clear and to the point.When you make a difference in the community and solve the correct problems, your career is bound to be better than others.
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