The Startup Fridays Podcast
_sm.jpg "Startup Fridays S2 Ep. 9: 'We need to accelerate corporate adoption of climate tech from startups' — Pratap Raju")
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Startup Fridays Season 2 Ep. 6: 'Entrepreneurship isn't a lifestyle, it's a life time of perseverance' — Naga Prakasam
Our guest today is Nagaraja Prakasam, an angel investor and startup mentor. Before he turned investor full time, Naga, as everyone knows him, had a successful career in the software industry. Over the years, he's turned his focus to impact investment and it remains his passion. He is also a bit of a globetrotter and has visited 26 countries. He is an advisor and mentor at various startup incubators, including the NSRCEL in IIM Bangalore
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Startup Fridays Season 2 Ep. 5: VC or entrepreneur, seek to be relevant, enjoy the journey, deliver results: Sateesh Andra of Endiya Partners
Our guest today is Sateesh Andra, managing director at Endiya Partners, a VC firm that backs early-stage IP-led startups. Before Endiya, he was a partner at Ventureast and DFJ. Before turning to VC, Sateesh was a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, as founder and CEO of Euclid, in the IT management software space. Sateesh was also a top-ranked table tennis player representing Andhra Pradesh
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Startup Fridays Season 2 Ep. 4: Don't build for your investors, build for your customers — Anish Achuthan
Our guest today is Anish Achuthan, co-founder and CEO of Open Financial Technologies, a neobank with more than two million SMEs as customers, making it one of the biggest fintech companies in this sector worldwide. Open has marquee investors backing it, including Google, Tiger Global and Temasek and the company is building a very strong portfolio of technologies for banking and financial services
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.jpg "Startup Fridays Season 2 Ep. 3: In entrepreneurship, as in life, breathe and know that this too shall pass — Anirudh Damani")
Startup Fridays Season 2 Ep. 3: In entrepreneurship, as in life, breathe and know that this too shall pass — Anirudh Damani
Our guest today is Anirudh Damani, founder and managing partner of Artha Venture Fund. After a degree in Economics and Business Administration, he spent several years in the energy industry in the US. He returned to India in 2013 and started Artha Energy Resources, an advisory firm in Mumbai, and Artha India Ventures, his family office, through which he backed several noteworthy startups, before starting his own micro VC firm, Artha Venture Fund. Anirudh is also a certified scuba diver
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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