Forbes India - Tech Conversations
-
Aneesh Reddy on why it's a great time to buy in SaaS if you have the money
In this episode, Aneesh Reddy, co-founder and vice chairman at Capillary Technologies in Bengaluru, looks back at his first attempt at cracking the US market and some of the learnings from that experience—10 years ago. He also talks about how Capillary is well on its way to becoming a global leader in the loyalty management solutions space. He expects the company to grow as much as 80 percent this year and hit $100 million in revenue in two years. Aneesh also talks about how acquisitions are helping Capillary's global expansion and why it's a great time to buy now
-
Praval Singh on how Zoho's entrepreneurial culture has expanded its upmarket reach
Praval Singh, vice president of marketing and customer experience at Zoho, talks about how the company has achieved strong traction with larger enterprise customers. Over the last three years, Zoho grew its mid-market and enterprise segment at 65 percent CAGR. The segment accounts for 50 percent of its annual recurring revenue in India and a third of its entire business, which has more than 90 million users from over 600,000 businesses. Singh, who started as an entrepreneur and a customer of Zoho himself, talks about how Zoho plans to build on its achievements
-
India's generative AI opportunity: Founder-investor views from Pratyush Rai and Vaibhav Domkundwar
In this episode, Pratyush Rai, co-founder of Foyer and Vaibhav Domkundwar, CEO at Better Capital, discuss the generative AI opportunity in India. Pratyush and his two co-founders, Sirsendu Sarkar and Siddhartha Saxena, are developing a Chrome browser extension that they've named Merlin, which allows users to tap the power for ChatGPT from whichever website they're on. The product has found strong traction within months of its release and is backed by investors, including Better. The founders expect to build deeper features around personalisation and the mobile phone
-
What Milind Manoj, AR expert, loves about Apple's Vision Pro and some things he doesn't
Milind Manoj, co-founder and CEO of Pupilmesh, an augmented reality and deep tech startup in Bengaluru, talks about what he loved about Apple's new headset, the Vision Pro. Milind talks about how Vision Pro differs from Apple's other products in that it will probably be very different from what we might find in, say, 2030. In contrast, if you look back at even the first iPhone, it's not all that different from today's handsets. Milind also explains some of the hardware challenges to be overcome before an AR headset will look no different from a pair of Ray-Bans
-
Ultraviolette's founders on the F77 — Part 2: Hard challenges, investors, products and plans
In this episode, Narayan Subramaniam and Niraj Rajmohan, co-founders of Ultraviolette, talk about their early choices with the F77, a performance electric motorcycle that's caught the attention of enthusiasts, young and old. This is part 2 of our conversation, in which the entrepreneurs talk about how sticking to their conviction that building their motorcycle as a premium performance bike was the way to go, avoiding the mass-market segment, is now beginning to pay off
-
Ultraviolette's founders on the evolution of the F77 — Part 1: the hangar and the tech
Narayan Subramaniam and Niraj Rajmohan, co-founders of Ultraviolette, talk about the evolution of their first product, the F77, a performance electric motorcycle that's drawn interest from around the world. This is part 1 of our two-part conversation, a simple walkthrough of the Bengaluru company's first showroom, which the entrepreneurs call their first hangar because they say everything about their bike is inspired by aviation. They also spoke about the innovations that went into the bike's battery and overall design to make it a genuine motorcycle first and an EV next
-
Dennis Woodside on Freshworks' $1 billion plan and beyond — Part 2
In this episode, Dennis Woodside, president of Freshworks, talks about some of the elements of the longer-term plan for Freshworks, including the role that AI will likely play in that. In about ten days, Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham is expected to reveal what he's been up to on the AI front. In this conversation, Dennis talks about the approach to AI that the company is taking. This is part 2 of our conversation, in which he also talks about the dynamics of his relationship with Girish and how that's shaping the culture at Freshworks
-
Dennis Woodside on Freshworks' $1 billion plan and beyond — Part 1
In this episode, Dennis Woodside, who will soon complete a year since he took on the role of president at Freshworks, tells us about what he's been up to at the company alongside Girish Mathrubootham. In part one of our conversation, Woodside puts some of Freshworks' recent numbers in perspective, including turning profitable on a non-GAAP basis for the first three months of this year; and why he thinks the Nasdaq-listed SaaS company can sustain that momentum. He also talks about why winning larger accounts holds the key to the company's long-term success
-
Prakash Govindan on plans ahead after recent funding that made Gradiant a unicorn
In this episode, Prakash Govindan, co-founder of Gradiant, a rising star in industrial effluent treatment technologies, returns to this podcast to give us an update on the company's plans after a recent $225 million funding round. The investment, led by Centaurus Capital and BoltRock, made the Boston-based company a unicorn. Prakash reiterates his ambition to take the company from an estimated $200 million in revenue for this year to a billion dollars over the next three to four years. He also spoke about a new product and Gradiant's prospects in India
-
Jayanta Banerjee on how tech is helping Tata Steel as the multinational behemoth's focus shifts to India
In this episode, Jayanta Banerjee, group CIO of Tata Steel, talks about how the company built successful IT architectures for multiple acquisitions as it ramped up its operations in India. Jayanta, who previously lead the energy and resources practice at Tata Consultancy Services, talks about the big-picture context in which the digital transformation projects at Tata Steel are being implemented and the growth of the business in a sustainable fashion. We began with how he sees his role and the many ways in which it has changed over the years
-
'Our India team is very much at the heart of our sustainability efforts': Mohamed Ali
GE Aerospace has big plans for its Indian operations, from R&D to manufacturing for the world, says Mohamed Ali, its vice president of engineering. And the company's 1,200 strong team in India is deep into making its next generation engines