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The Thing With This One Is

The Thing With This One Is

By: Ram Deshpande
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Podcast hosted by Ram Deshpande. Ram is the CMO of a leading fintech in India. He has been in the corporate world for over 22 years traversing diverse businesses such as patent research, R&D, innovation scouting, e-commerce, visual merchandising, communication, advertising, digital marketing, and a few other. This podcast is titled "The Thing With This One Is" because it is the typical phrase used by creators, business owners, thinkers, designers and the like when they explain their work in detail focusing on nuances. Ram's natural curiosity makes for interesting conversations.Ram Deshpande Economics
Episodes
  • Building India’s Fastest Smart TV - The Thing With This One Is – Episode 6 with Founders of Lumio - Raghu Reddy and Kailash Sankaranarayanan
    Jun 21 2025
    Raghu Reddy and Kailash Sankaranarayanan joined “The Thing With This One Is” podcast with Ram Deshpande. Raghu is the CEO & co-founder and Kailash is the COO & co-founder of the brand Lumio. This latest entrant into the large Indian market of smart TVs has already made its mark by climbing the bestseller charts on Amazon. Customer reviews are good too and the product is living up to its tagline ‘India’s Fastest Smart TV’.In this podcast, the founders of Lumio have described how they formed the team, how they identified the gaps in the market, how they decided on the key features of the TV, how they are selling now, and what their future plans are. We got to see a live demo of the Lumio Vision series TV. Furthermore, a live comparison with TV of a well-known brand was done to see the effectiveness of Lumio. Watch the episode to know if Lumio is indeed India’s Fastest Smart TV.Chapters 00:00 Intro and sneak peek 02:04 Podcast starts04:46 Raghu Reddy’s journey in consumer electronics08:04 Kailash’s corporate experience and involvement with XLRI band Bodhitree11:06 Born in HSR Layout, Bengaluru – Lumio’s early days and first sale12:16 Investors in Lumio, an Indian brand making televisions14:25 Lumio team of AV Geeks - The thing with attracting the right talent17:45 The thing with understanding specific consumer pain-points19:05 Evolution of TVs in India, first TVs, no remotes, one channel to the generation of chord-cutters23:28 How crowded is the Indian market, how big is it, and gap in the market26:12 Slow TV epidemic – conclusion from analysis of consumer reviews28:20 What do consumers look for when buying a TV and why don’t brands tell them the truth?31:05 Addressing the performance requirements of the cord cutter consumers – making the fastest smart TV35:32 Flagship display and great sound alongside fast performance41:45 Developing new software features to improve user experience 44:05 Selling online on Amazon (and soon on Flipkart)48:15 Price points of Vision 7 and Vision 9 models of Lumio and plans for other models51:37 How TV product discovery is different from smartphones while purchasing online 53:15 Demo of Lumio vs other brand – booting speed, opening Netflix, scrolling speed58:22 TLDR – coolest feature of Lumio1:02:45 What makes Lumio faster and better? The thing with RAM and Flagship processor1:05:15 Lumio vs other brand on YouTube search, colours, and Apple TV app – seeing is believing1:09:10 Customer response so far and online reviews1:14:39 Lumio on social media and creating online content1:17:36 Experience Lumio TV at Urban Ladder in Domlur, BengaluruTelevision sets have become ubiquitous across India making it one of the largest markets in the world. What started with black and white single channel TVs has leapfrogged into a market that is overwhelmingly dominated by Smart TVs. With the cord cutter generation being the primary buying or influencing segment, smart TVs are a default demand now. While most brands have advertised and delivered exceptional visual quality, sound, connectivity, one aspect has remained a customer pain point. That aspect is performance or the speed with which a smart TV performs its functions like booting up, opening apps, switching apps, and other such functions. A customer may not think of performance as a primary criterion of selection while making a TV purchase. However, it soon becomes a big thing as the novelty of other features wears off. Lumio is solving for this gap in the market. Raghu and Kailash talked about how they got into this business of manufacturing and selling televisions in India. Either they have to be a bit crazy, or they need to have a really kickass product to enter a market that is dominated by huge multinational organisations with established multi-billion-dollar sales in India. Listen to the podcast and watch the demo to know how they are building a kickass product.
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    1 hr and 21 mins
  • The thing with urban living and fights among RWA members on WhatsApp; Episode 5 with Vikram Rai President of Bangalore Apartments' Federation
    Jun 3 2025

    Vikram Rai joined “The Thing With This One Is” podcast with Ram Deshpande. Vikram is the President of Bangalore Apartments’ Federation (BAF). He also has his own healthtech startup called Vitor Health. In this episode, we focused on Vikram’s work with the BAF.

    Urban living in India has transformed over the last couple of decades. Whether we live in apartments or independent houses, there is a sharing of resources that happens. That leads to rules and regulations, which when are flouted there are conflicts. Most places have Resident Welfare Associations or RWAs or societies to take care of these conflicts and ensure a proper living environment. In Bengaluru, all these RWAs have an umbrella body which is the Bengaluru Apartments Federation, led by Vikram.

    In this podcast, Vikram has described how BAF

    - began and grew on the back of citizens’ agitations

    - is not just about agitations though but effectively represents residents’ concern and solves the problems by collaborating with the government, civic bodies, and other entities

    - has handled multiple issues in the past and what its current focus areas are

    - is also a ready resource for all information needed for better urban living. This includesresources on a range of topics including rooftop solar, water connection, STPs, common area electricity, fire safety, workers training, and many more. Everything is available on BAF’s website and its app.

    While many serious topics have been addressed by Vikram, funny yet important topics emanating from RWA or society WhatsApp groups have also been discussed. No topic is off limit. Pets, lifts, parking, business promotions, and many others.

    BAF is an excellent example for other cities to follow. Vikramand others at BAF are available to share their expertise with folks from othercities.

    Follow Vikram Rai:

    X - https://x.com/raizerius

    Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/raizerius/

    LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/raivikram/

    Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/rai.vikram/

    Follow Bangalore Apartments’ Federation (BAF)

    YouTube Page : https://www.youtube.com/bafbangalore

    Insta Handle : https://www.instagram.com/bafbangalore/

    X Handle : https://x.com/bafblr

    FB Page :https://www.facebook.com/BangaloreApartmentsFederation/

    LinkedIn Page :https://www.linkedin.com/company/bangalore-apartments-federation/

    🔔 Don’t forget to like,subscribe, and hit the bell icon to stay updated on all our future episodesfeaturing thought leaders, creators, and industry experts.

    Chapters

    00:00Intro and sneak peek

    04:40 Podcast starts

    07:30 How was the Bangalore Apartments Federation formed

    14:18 How BAF grew as an umbrella body representing interestsof lakhs of people

    19:30 The thing about ‘every vote matters’

    21:33 The people of BAF, their corporate professionalapproach, and the structure of BAF

    29:45 The thing with Bengaluru

    32:58 BAF has an app and it has a lot of useful information

    34:22 BAF’s work with Horticultural Producers' CooperativeMarketing and Processing Society (HOPCOMs)

    36:43 BAF’s multiple programs – teaching Kannada, MoU withtraffic police, sale of treated water, overall water management, helping newRWAs with many complicated processes

    42:40 Training and education of RWA staff, workers, and committeemembers; collab with IIM-B

    46:05 The thing with building compliance requirements

    48:38 BAF’s work on climate and sustainability issues; theHasiru program

    52:12 Issues from RWA WhatsApp groups

    53:07 Pets and other animals

    58:25 Lifts

    1:05:01 Parking

    1:07:05 Workers making noise

    1:08:09 Trash clearance

    1:10:26 Shoes in the hallway

    1:14:06 Promoting businesses on WhatsApp groups

    1:16:12 Kids

    1:17:34 Fire hazard

    1:18:32 The thing with lack of courtesy

    1:19:55 RWA committee members fighting on WhatsApp; how BAFdoes dispute resolution

    1:23:30 RWA WhatsApp providing material to standup comedians

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    1 hr and 29 mins
  • Indian money is driving social impact in India – Sattva Consulting - The Thing With This One Is - Episode 4 - The Thing About Driving Social Impact
    Apr 19 2025

    Sattva Consulting founders, Srikrishna Sridhar Murthy, Rathis Balakrishnan, and Aarti Mohan, joined “The Thing With This One Is” podcast with Ram Deshpande. They started Sattva Consulting over a decade ago and continue to drive impact by working with clients and partners across corporate social responsibility (CSR), philanthropy, non-profits, social enterprises, government bodies and multilateral agencies. Their areas of work include climate action, quality education, food security, agriculture, gender equality, healthcare, inclusion, livelihoods for economic growth, clean water & sanitation, and many other areas.Krishna, Rathish, and Aarti have demonstrated exemplary leadership in building an organization that is not only driving impact in India but is also going global now. Sattva Consulting is not the usual consulting firm that just provides plans for business problems. They are involved with execution of the plans and also with driving and measuring impact. Started by these batchmates from BITS Pilani, Sattva Consulting is now over 400-people strong organisation with not only a very impressive list of clients but also a diverse portfolio of services & products. Sattva Consulting is a leading impact and CSR consulting firm in India and is considered a leading reliable source of data and knowledge in the domain of impact. In this podcast, the founders of Sattva Consulting discuss how they started the company, how they grew it, and how they are now planning a future with significant impact. They have also shared their views on what impact means and what it takes to drive social impact on a consistent basis. Discussion inlcuded multiple relevant topics such as CSR in India, attitude of young people towards impact driving work, role of the government, and what excites the team about the future. Krishna, Rathish, and Aarti have been devoted to activities that drive social impact from their early corporate days. Even after decades of experience among them, the enthusiasm and excitement for impact work is still clearly visible. They also share an enviable bond as old friends which brings clarity among themselves towards work matters.There are a number of lessons to be learnt from the work done by the founders of Sattva Consulting. Viewers and listeners of this podcast can expect to learn interesting points about entrepreneurship, business growth with clear vision, developing and maintaining trust-based relationships, running a large organisation with an ambition to go global, and above all driving social impact at every step of the way. Chapters00:00 Intro05:25 Origin story – how theatre, dance, journalism, and volunteering built the foundation of Sattva15:05 The Thing with setting up a formal for-profit entity called Sattva Consulting and becoming full-time founders19:55 The Thing about answering “what do you really do”21:48 The Thing about the first client and initial work that set Sattva Consulting on course30:48 Developing the pitch for impact consulting with every engagement35:35 Timeline of growth of Sattva Consulting40:46 The thing about the CSR law in India47:36 Why companies do good52:24 The thing about structuring and running a large organisation 59:50 The thing about trust among founders1:06:36 What can a young person expect while working at Sattva Consulting1:11:16 Role of the government in driving social impact1:13:54 What are Sattva founders positive about in the near future? How’s the mahoul?1:18:53 BTS and bloopersEpisode 4 credits Guests: Srikrishna Sridhar Murthy, Rathish Balakrishnan, and Aarti MohanHost: Ram Deshpande Photographed, Edited, and Directed by: Kedar Gavane Title concept and music created by: Ram Deshpande Location: Sattva Consulting, Bengaluru, India

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    1 hr and 20 mins
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