Forbes India - Tech Conversations
.jpg?impolicy=website&width=800&height=600 "Jani Pasha on building the hyperlocal playbook, and experiments with monetisation at Lokal")
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Founding partners at Upsparks on going from bootstrapped CPaaS venture to IPO to micro VC investors
Our guests today are Mohamad Faraz, Shivam Prasad, and Vinay Jain, founding partners at Upsparks, a micro VC firm that the entrepreneurs-turned-investors started in 2020. In this conversation, they talk about bootstrapping a communications platform-as-a-service business at a time when there were no playbooks in India and seeing it go through an acquisition and eventually the IPO of the parent business—an experience that they want to offer startup founders, along with their cheques
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Ritu Verma at Ankur Capital on a journey from squishy molecules researcher to venture capital investor
Our guest today is Ritu Verma, cofounder and managing partner at Ankur Capital. Ritu started as a physicist but wanted to be in a world where science is applied to make useful things. In today's conversation, Ritu talks about realising that ambition as a venture capital investor backing science-led startups and the challenges it presents. By the way, it's the international day of women and girls in science today
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Amitava Saha at Xpressbees on the convergence in the logistics industry, the path to IPO
Our guest today is Amitava Saha, co-founder and CEO of Xpressbees. He has just taken his company to a billion dollars in valuation and has an IPO on the horizon. In this conversation, Amitava talks about how the logistics industry is becoming much more tech-enabled and a convergence he sees in the operations of his largest customers
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Aayush Ghosh Choudhury at Scrut Automation on bringing SaaS innovation to governance, risk and compliance
Our guest today is Aayush Ghosh Choudhury, co-founder and CEO at Scrut Automation, a venture focused on automating processes related to governance, risk and compliance. In this conversation, Aayush talks about the innovations that are built into Scrut, and plans ahead, after a recent funding round that saw the young venture get the backing of Endiya Partners and Lightspeed
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Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka at Skyroot on their ambition to launch a rocket a day
Our guests today are Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, co-founders of Skyroot Aerospace, who are preparing to flight test their first space rocket by the end of this year. In this conversation, Pawan and Bharath talk about their aspiration to be a launch vehicle provider of choice, with the ability to launch a rocket a day, on demand
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Dinesh Varadharajan at Kissflow on how less can be more in a highly relevant product
Our guest today is Dinesh Varadharajan, vice president and chief product officer at Kissflow, a no-code software pioneer. In this conversation, Varadharajan talks about lessons in perfecting a product, like how less can be more and pitfalls to avoid. He also talks about Kissflow's next product—a low-code software package with advanced customisation features aimed at the IT team
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Achuthanand T Ravi, co-founder and CEO at Kula, on surfacing passive, hidden talent for recruiters
Our guest today is Achuthanand Tanjore Ravi, co-founder and CEO of Kula, a startup that is aiming to make life easier for recruiters around the world. In this conversation, Achuthanand talks about his own experience dealing with the frustration of finding the right talent quickly in multiple companies that he worked with, and the lessons and customer feedback that has gone into some of the innovations in the product Kula.ai
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Arun Vinayak, CEO of Exponent Energy, on the quest for ultra-fast charging for EVs
Our guest today is Arun Vinayak, co-founder and CEO of Exponent Energy, a battery and charging technologies provider for the electric vehicle market in India. Vinayak, who was part of the founding team and chief product officer at e-scooter maker Ather Energy, started Exponent in 2020 to tackle the problem of quickly getting power into EV batteries from the grid. He has raised about $6 million in funding so far and expects to see his products in the market this year
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Arvind Parthiban, CEO of SuperOps, on solving problems for managed services providers in the post-Covid world
Our guest today is Arvind Parthiban, co-founder and CEO of SuperOps, a Silicon Valley and Chennai SaaS startup that is automating a bunch of processes for small managed services providers. In this conversation, Arvind talks about co-creating SuperOps with several MSPs, why SaaS startups are increasingly looking at more features from the get-go, and a new round of funding as well—led by Lee Fixel's Addition
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Srikrishnan Ganesan, CEO of Rocketlane, on vital market lessons in SaaS product development
Our guest today is Srikrishnan Ganesan, who is on his second successful venture, building cloud software products for the enterprise market. In today's conversation, Srikrishnan talks about some of the lessons he learned from the market that helped him and his co-founders focus on what customers wanted versus what was dear to the entrepreneurs
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Keshav Murugesh, Group CEO of WNS, on the next phase of the evolution of the BPM industry
Our guest today is Keshav R Murugesh, group CEO of WNS, one of India's largest business process management companies. In this conversation, Keshav talks about how the sector, which started out as cost-saving based business process outsourcing, grew to provide more business value and is now an engine for the digital transformation of some of the world's biggest companies in areas including financial services, travel and healthcare