The Startup Fridays Podcast
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Startup Fridays S5 Ep3: Ashok Jhunjhunwala on why India must say 'yes we can' to deep tech
In this episode, Ashok Jhunjhunwala, institute professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and president of IITM Research Park, Incubation Cell and RTBI, talks about why the next big push is needed now for India to become a nation of deep tech products over the next decade. He also asks that administrators and bureaucrats change their control mindset to allow our scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to fail without fear so that they can eventually succeed in building this ecosystem for India
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Startup Fridays: Vinod Shankar's journey from software techie to lending books to deep tech investor
Vinod Shankar, founding managing partner at Java Capital in Bengaluru, talks about his passion for backing deep tech entrepreneurs. Shankar started out as a software engineer but his insatiable thirst for knowledge has taken him from a software startup to leading marketing for a new-age library chain to angel investing to eventually working at a VC firm before starting one of his own. Vinod talks about why he wants to invest in deep tech ventures, and how he identifies entrepreneurs worth backing
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Startup Fridays S5 Ep2: Vinod Shankar's journey from software techie to lending books to deep tech investor
In this episode, Vinod Shankar, founding managing partner at Java Capital in Bengaluru, talks about his passion for backing deep tech entrepreneurs. Shankar started out as a software engineer but his insatiable thirst for knowledge has taken him from a software startup to leading marketing for a library chain to angel investing to eventually working at a VC firm before starting one of his own. Vinod talks about why he wants to invest in deep tech ventures, and how he identifies entrepreneurs worth backing
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Startup Fridays S5 Ep1: Karan Mohla at B Capital on the convergence he sees coming in India's startup ecosystem
And in this episode, Karan Mohla, partner at the VC firm B Capital talks about the convergence that he sees beginning to happen, which is bringing different aspects of India's startup ecosystem to points of inflection. Karan, who's backed companies including FirstCry, HealthifyMe, XpressBees and CropIn, also talks about how he figured out early that entrepreneurship was not for him, but backing founders was. He talks about learning from early mistakes as a VC investor and the importance of being self-aware and honest when deciding on investments
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Startup Fridays S4 Ep24: Kavita Shenoy, Anand Gopal part 2 — from nearly running out of money to a done deal
This is part two of a conversation with Kavita Shenoy and Anand Gopal, on their 10-year entrepreneurial roller coaster, building Voiro, an ad-tech SaaS company in Bengaluru. In today's episode, they talk about how the $750 billion ad landscape is changing, their hopes for Voiro's future, how building their own company has been life-changing, and why it has them coming back for more every day
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Startup Fridays S4 Ep23: Kavita Shenoy, Anand Gopal part 1: 30k from Nandan Nilekani to multinational customers at Voiro
Today we bring you part one of a conversation with Kavita Shenoy and Anand Gopal, on their 10-year entrepreneurial adventure, building Voiro, an ad-tech SaaS company in Bengaluru. In today's episode, they talk about how they started Voiro, and then went from consulting and services and an "excel sheet from hell" to a software product and winning customers like Hotstar and Flipkart
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Viral Shah on the journey of Julia programming language to tackle the 'two language problem'
Viral Shah, co-inventor of Julia programming language and co-founder of Julia Hub, an enterprise software startup, talks about the opensource language's journey since he first started exchanging emails on the idea with his co-founders back in late 2009. Julia Hub was founded in 2015 and has raised about $43 million in funding. Shah and his co-founders are helping scientists and engineers innovate faster — in pharmaceuticals, aerospace, semiconductors, and industrial engineering
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Startup Fridays S4 Ep22: Viral Shah on the mission at Julia Hub to help scientists and engineers innovate faster
Viral Shah, co-inventor of Julia programming language and co-founder of Julia Hub, an enterprise software startup, talks about this opensource language's journey that will touch 15 years in the new year. Julia Hub, founded in 2015, today has customers including some of the world's biggest companies in pharmaceuticals, aerospace, semiconductors, and industrial engineering. With some $43 million in funding, Shah and his co-founders are helping scientists and engineers innovate faster by tackling what he calls the "two language problem"
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Startup Fridays S4 Ep21: Amit Gupta on sticking to his by-the-pincode approach to scaling Yulu
In this episode, Amit Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Yulu Bikes, gives us an update on how the electric moped venture will continue its pincode-by-pincode approach to growth. Earlier this year, Yulu added a battery-as-a-service business, called Yuma. Yulu has also entered the OEM business, with Bajaj Auto making the Yulu Wynn, a more stylish version of the Yulu Miracle, that consumers can buy for about ₹55,000 upfront, and then subscribe to a battery and mobility plan. Amit expects to expects Yulu to hit breakeven this year.
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Startup Fridays S4 Ep20: Kiran Mysore on his journey from Bhadravati to UTEC's deep tech evangelist
In this episode, we chat with Kiran Mysore, a principal at the University of Tokyo Edge Capital, one of Asia's biggest deep tech VC funds, on the ninth anniversary of his move to Japan, where he found his calling as a deep tech VC investor, leading global investments including into India and Southeast Asia. We spoke mostly about his experience with the deep tech ecosystem in India thus far and his plans. But Kiran also opened up a bit about his love of learning and how he stays on track
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Startup Fridays S4 Ep19: Kunal Khattar on how the best is yet to come in India's EV sector
In this episode, Kunal Khattar, founding partner at AdvantEdge Founders, an early-stage VC firm in Delhi focused on India's mobility sector, talks about the future of this industry in India and the role that companies ranging from Ather to Tesla could play in it. He also talks about business innovations that could soon make electric vehicles more affordable to the Indian buyer and perhaps even cheaper than the fossil-fuel-guzzling ones. Kunal also spoke a little bit about his entrepreneurial journey leading up to the setting up of his VC firm