The Startup Fridays Podcast
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Startup Fridays Season 2 Ep. 2: Entrepreneurship is an experience in expanding circles of influence and impact — Ajit Isaac
Our guest today is Ajit Isaac, Founder and Executive Chairman of Quess Corp. Ajit's career started just as India's economic liberalisation was beginning. Earlier in his career, Ajit was a British Chevening scholar. He had a successful corporate career before he turned entrepreneur, and built two large HR companies, including Quess. In today's conversation, Ajit talks about the next phase of Quess's evolution and his own growth as an entrepreneur
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Startup Fridays Season 2 Ep. 1: Bootstrapping can mean leaving a lot of value on the table - Vaibhav Domkundwar
Our guest today is entrepreneur-turned VC investor, Vaibhav Domkundwar, founder and CEO of Better Capital, an early-stage VC firm. At Better Capital, Vaibhav has had phenomenal success in identifying a large number of promising startups very early and backing them. Today, collectively, his portfolio companies are worth over $5 billion
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'Network, because aspiring founders in India today have people to go to for help and advice' — Sangeeta Bavi
Our guest today is Sangeeta Bavi, Director, Startup Ecosystem, Microsoft India. Sangeeta started at Wipro more than 20 years ago. She then had a long stint at Nokia where she led projects, products, as well developer outreach. At Microsoft today, she is helping startups from the idea stage, all the way to becoming established businesses. She is also an active volunteer community builder as part of the SaaSBoomi network of cloud software startups in India
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Startup Fridays Ep 32: Entrepreneurship is jumping off a cliff; if you really want it, face your fears, take the plunge - Ezhilarasan Natarajan
Our guest today is Ezhilarasan 'Ez' Natarajan, founder and CEO of CoreStack, which helps enterprise customers find the best way into the cloud. Prior to CoreStack, he held leadership, strategy and business ownership roles at Capgemini Group and Mindtree. He has been part of the Microsoft Azure Business group building Public Azure services for the world, in China and Australia
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Startup Fridays Ep 31: There will be highs and lows, but self belief and focus amid all the noise will carry you — Manav Garg
Our guest today is Manav Garg, founder and CEO of Eka Software Solutions. Eka today provides a comprehensive cloud platform for commodities and energy trading. When Manav started Eka, there was no playbook for software products companies out of India. Today, he is one of the central figures in India's software-as-a-service startup ecosystem. He helped start SaaSBoomi, and this year, a venture fund called Together, to help Indian software product entrepreneurs benefit from his experience and network
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Startup Fridays Ep 30: Find what you're truly passionate about, work on it, and get an investor who really believes in you - Rahul Saxena
Our guest today is Rahul Saxena, co-founder and CTO of AiDash. Saxena is a serial entrepreneur and has previously co-founded Quiklo, a fintech startup in Bengaluru, and allMemoirs, a social commerce and product discovery venture. He was also an entrepreneur-in-residence at the VC firm Accel. He has a degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
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Startup Fridays Ep 29: As a founder, don't be afraid to ask, and don't be shy to learn from others' mistakes — Shruti Kapoor
Our guest today is Shruti Kapoor, co-founder and CEO of Wingman, which offers an AI-product to help sales people do better on the fly, among other things. Previously, Kapoor worked at Payoneer, an American payments technology company, where she was part of the founding team and helped establish the company's India operations. She has a BSc in Life Sciences from National University of Singapore, and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad
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Startup Fridays Ep 28: As a founder, embrace the liberating power of truth, and don't be too hard on yourself - Jahangir Mohammed
Our guest today is Jahangir Mohammed, founder and CEO of Twin Health, based in San Francisco, with a centre in Chennai. The company offers a digital-twin based health service combining AI and machine learning, and the latest in medical science to help people reverse diseases like diabetes. Previously, Mohammed has built multiple tech businesses, including Jasper, an IoT technology company that was acquired by Cisco for $1.4 billion
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Startup Fridays Ep 27: Investments and entrepreneurship are for the long haul, so stay invested and keep investing' — Atul Shinghal
Our guest today is Atul Shinghal, founder and CEO of Scripbox, a company that has played an important role in making it easy for people to invest in mutual funds in India. And Scripbox is now evolving into a broader wealth management platform. Shinghal is also co-founder of Probe Information Services, which provides financial information on companies in India. He has a degree in naval architecture from IIT Madras and an MBA from IIM Bangalore
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Startup Fridays Ep 26: 'Building deep tech in India is like growing rice in a desert: You need perseverance' - Parag Naik
Our guest today is Parag Naik, co-founder and CEO of Saankhya Labs, in Bengaluru. Saankhya is an award-winning semiconductor design company that has a range of products and solutions in its portfolio today for both terrestrial and satellite communications. Parag has a degree in computer science. He is a serial entrepreneur, and Saankhya Labs is his third successful venture. The company has partnerships with some of the world's best known advanced electronics' names
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Startup Fridays Ep 25: In India, a light bulb went off in my head, and I knew I wanted to invest in founders there - Brendan Rogers
Our guest this Friday was Brendan Rogers, founding partner at 2am VC, a venture capital firm in the US, which focuses on investing in Gen Z entrepreneurs in India. 2am VC, which Rogers co-founded with Hershel Mehta, has already made investments in Indian startups in sectors including fintech and health care. Rogers also co-founded Wag! Labs, a pet services startup that attracted investors including SoftBank. Rogers spoke about the energy among young entrepreneurs in the country, and how 2am VC could help