Episodes

  • Startup Fridays S4 Ep6: Nitin Chhabra's fascinating journey from Boomer bubblegum to SaaS to $50 mln retail operator

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep6: Nitin Chhabra's fascinating journey from Boomer bubblegum to SaaS to $50 mln retail operator
    Feb 17 2023
    In this episode, Nitin Chhabra, co-founder and CEO of Ace Turtle, a tech-enabled retail business that's the force behind brands like Lee and Wrangler in India, talks about how the company started out as a SaaS business, selling software for the so-called omnichannel retail. Nitin and co-founder Berry Singh then decided to risk that entire business, convincing their board and investors, to transform Ace Turtle into a retail operator, even as the Covid pandemic was unfolding. They are now looking at more than doubling their sales to become a $100 million company over the next 12 months
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    Less than 1 minute
  • Startup Fridays S4 Ep2: 'Find difficult and large problems and prepare for the long haul' �” Rahul Garg

    Startup Fridays S4 Ep2: 'Find difficult and large problems and prepare for the long haul' �” Rahul Garg
    Jan 23 2023
    In today's episode, Rahul Garg, founder and CEO of Moglix, talks about what's next for the company, which he says is knocking on $600-700 million in revenue. He also talks about his love of solving not just difficult problems, but difficult and large ones, which feeds his entrepreneurial decisions. Aspiring founders must understand this, and prepare for the long haul—from the existential challenges of the early years to facing the question 'can you scale profitably,' later on, he says
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    Less than 1 minute
  • Startup Fridays S3 Ep10: 'From doer to enabler, I'm optimistic about innovation and inclusion in India' �” Sanjay Jain

    Startup Fridays S3 Ep10: 'From doer to enabler, I'm optimistic about innovation and inclusion in India' �” Sanjay Jain
    Nov 4 2022
    Our guest today is Sanjay Jain, partner at Bharat Fund and chief innovation officer at CIIE.co. Sanjay, who played a leading role in building Google's Map Maker, and later was the founding chief product manager at UIDAI, talks about his journey going "from doer to enabler." With a master's in computer science from UCLA, and experience as a serial entrepreneur himself, Sanjay also talks about how the fund, a Rs. 600 crore corpus, attempts to straddle intellectual-property-led innovation and an inclusion mandate for the Bharat segment of India
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    Less than 1 minute
  • Startup Fridays S3 Ep4: 'To win in startup investing, bring differentiated value to founders' �” Ashutosh Sharma

    Startup Fridays S3 Ep4: 'To win in startup investing, bring differentiated value to founders' �” Ashutosh Sharma
    Aug 26 2022
    Our guest today is Ashutosh Sharma, head of investments in India for Prosus Ventures, one of the world's biggest technology investors. In this episode, Sharma, who has led Prosus Ventures' investments in India for some six years, talks about how an emerging trend in the country's startup ecosystem is led by entrepreneurs "building in India for India." That is reassuring, even amid a slowdown, because it augurs well for the long-term growth of entrepreneurship in the country, he says
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    56 mins
  • Startup Fridays S2 Ep.14: 'We knew we were onto something when we analysed our rejections' �” Vinay Nair

    Startup Fridays S2 Ep.14: 'We knew we were onto something when we analysed our rejections' �” Vinay Nair
    Jul 19 2022
    Our guest today is Vinay B Nair, Founder and CEO, TIFIN, a fintech venture that provides technology and expertise to business clients to apply AI to personalise their financial products and services to their end customers or consumers. Vinay has a chemical engineering degree and a doctorate in finance and economics. He founded TIFIN in 2018. Previously he has been a hedge fund manager and sold a startup, 55 Institutional Partners, an investment advisory, to JP Morgan. He is a visiting faculty member at The Wharton School and co-author of 'Investing for Change'
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    48 mins
  • Startup Fridays Season 2 Ep. 7: My hope is, entrepreneurs even crazier than us will rise and build for India �” Rohan Verma

    Startup Fridays Season 2 Ep. 7: My hope is, entrepreneurs even crazier than us will rise and build for India �” Rohan Verma
    Mar 24 2022
    Our guest today is Rohan Verma, CEO and executive director at MapmyIndia, a Mumbai-listed company in the areas of digital mapping, geospatial technologies and automotive mobility technologies. In this episode, Rohan talks about why he is optimistic that a serious tech product ecosystem will emerge in India over the next five years. He also hopes that entrepreneurs with foresight will rise and make India self reliant for the crucial underlying infrastructure as well
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    Less than 1 minute
  • 'Network, because aspiring founders in India today have people to go to for help and advice' �” Sangeeta Bavi

    'Network, because aspiring founders in India today have people to go to for help and advice' �” Sangeeta Bavi
    Dec 16 2021
    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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    Less than 1 minute
  • Startup Fridays Ep 31: There will be highs and lows, but self belief and focus amid all the noise will carry you — Manav Garg

    Startup Fridays Ep 31: There will be highs and lows, but self belief and focus amid all the noise will carry you — Manav Garg
    Dec 3 2021
    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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    Less than 1 minute