The Startup Fridays Podcast
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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
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Startup Fridays S4 Ep18: Arun Raghavan on journey from accidental investor to $40 mln fund at Arali
Arun Raghavan, founding partner at Arali Ventures in Bengaluru, talks about how he and his friend Rajiv Raghunandan became VC investors with an operator's flavour, and the experience that's helped them invest very early in entrepreneurs across sectors, from fintech and SaaS to deep tech startups. Arun also talks about how India is ready for the next level of sophistication in sectors such as SaaS, where we need to go from application-level plays to infrastructure layers. Such companies would then be truly relevant to global customers
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Startup Fridays S4 Ep 17: TN Hari's counterintuitive ideas on purpose and other notes on Indian startups
In this episode, TN Hari, co-founder of Artha School of Entrepreneurship, who's also a prolific author on building for India, and an angel investor, talks about his learnings from across his career — from being a corporate executive at Tata Steel to diving into startups like TaxiForSure and BigBasket. He talks about problems in India that aren't necessarily amenable to the hyper-growth model of VC funded startups. And he talks about the value of some highly effective leaders, who're almost invisible to the public eye, he says.
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Startup Fridays S4 Ep16: How Shivnath Babu wears two hats lightly, an entrepreneur and a scientist
In this episode, Shivnath Babu, co-founder and CTO of Unravel Data, talks about the growing importance of data observability and the contributions being made by his venture. Shivnath started his career as a computer science engineer from IIT Madras and then earned his PhD in the area of data platforms at Stanford University. He spent 12 years as an adjunct professor at Duke University before teaming up with Kunal Agarwal to start Unravel Data. The venture today is a Series D-funded company with investors including Third Point Ventures, Menlo Ventures and GGV Capital
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Startup Fridays S4 Ep15: Will Poole on investing in resilient founders in the global south
Will Poole, co-founder and managing partner of Capria Ventures, talks about the opportunities and challenges in investing in the global south. Will started his career with a computer science degree 40 years ago and worked at some of the biggest names in tech, including Sun Microsystems and Microsoft, before turning to VC investing. A significant part of that career involves working in India, where in his own words, an early lesson was about finding "resilient founders." He also talks about why he wants every company in Capria's portfolio to have a generative AI strategy
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Startup Fridays S4 Ep14: The lightness of being Dev Khare and other notes on India's startup scene
In this episode, Dev Khare, a partner at Lightspeed, one of the most prominent global early-stage VC firms operating in India, talks about how and why he became a venture capital investor, and what keeps him going today. Dev also talks about how India's startups are changing, how Lightspeed is different, in his view, and some lessons from his own career, having tasted entrepreneurship firsthand before turning VC investor—the importance of timing, the value of compounding not just investments but relationships, and a simple productivity hack that always works for him
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Startup Fridays S4 Ep13: Sayandeb Banerjee on life as a 'practitioner' CEO at TheMathCompany
In this episode, Sayandeb Banerjee, co-founder and CEO at TheMathCompany, talks about how his six-year-old venture has grown from strength to strength, building custom analytics solutions for some of the world's biggest companies. He also talks about how he's always had an entrepreneurial streak; the advantages of not taking VC money too early; lessons Banerjee, and his co-founders Aditya Kumbakonam and Anuj Krishna, had to learn or unlearn as "practitioners," new to hard-core sales; and finding personal space and time for his love of the sitar
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Startup Fridays S4 Ep12: Why Rishi Navani seeks founders he can't help, and what he means by that
In this episode, Rishi Navani, founder and managing partner at Epiq capital, a growth-stage VC firm, talks about never losing sight of the core idea of venture capital, which is to make substantial returns for his investors. Over the 25 years that he's been backing ventures, including previously co-founding Matrix Partners India, Navani's way of doing this is to not spend time on how he can add value to an entrepreneur or startup, he says. Instead, he seeks founders who are so good that they mostly don't need his help, beyond the capital
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Startup Fridays S4 Ep11: Arun Kumar at Celesta on tough times revealing resilient founders, great investments
In this episode, Arun Kumar, managing partner at Celesta Capital, talks about why some of the best VC investment opportunities can be found in tough times, as they reveal the most resilient entrepreneurs. Kumar's career includes leading KPMG India and serving in former US President Barack Obama's administration. He also talks about embracing change—from leading thousands of colleagues at KPMG to being part of a team of about 25 at Celesta—the importance of purpose, his love of poetry and learning to enjoy everything that life threw at him
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Startup Fridays S4 Ep10: SpotDraft's founders on spit-and-a-handshake in the age of machines and AI
In this episode, Shashank Bijapur, Madhav Bhagat and Rohith Salim talk about how they got to build SpotDraft, which offers a machine learning and AI-based contract lifecycle management platform to legal teams at companies around the world. Founded in 2017, SpotDraft has helped customers process more than a million contracts since the company released its first commercial product. The first-time entrepreneurs have raised nearly $45 million in funding from investors including Prosus, PremjiInvest, and Arkam Ventures. This year, soon, they expect to hit an ARR of $10 million
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Startup Fridays S4 Ep9: Ganesh Rengaswamy's fascinating trip from Travel Guru to Quona Capital
In this episode, Ganesh Rengaswamy, co-founder and managing partner at Quona Capital, looks back at how he once juggled being a co-founder at Travel Guru and an MBA student at Harvard Business School, and what he would have done differently. Ganesh also talks about Quona's deep interest in fintech in India and several other markets; and how India's public digital infrastructure and private startups will eventually unlock the massive potential of our SMBs. He also talks about his own experience with respect to seeking and learning from mentors