E131: Ashok Hariharan (CEO, IDfy)

Ashok is the Co-founder and CEO of IDfy, an online fraud detection and identity platform that provides background verification services to banks and financial institutions. He started his career in semi-conductors, building high-speed network processors. His MBA degree took him away from Engineering and into the world of Business Strategy. He worked with British Telecom in London for 5 years before deciding that his heart lay in creating value grounds-up.  The company has raised over $54M from IndiaMart, KB Investment, Blume Ventures, Elev8 Venture Partners among many others. . . . Episode Notes: Introduction (2:00) Was entrepreneurship part of Ashok’s career plan (3:04) Early influence of entrepreneurship (4:40) Learnings from building (13:50) What does entrepreneurship teach you about failure and setbacks (25:00) Struggling with mental health as founders (30:00) Evolving as a founder: Doer to enabler (39:45) Building a ‘change culture’ (44:01) Impact of entrepreneurship on personal life (51:35) Advice to self and other founders (54:29) . . . Social Links: Follow ⁠⁠Ashok on Twitter⁠⁠ Follow ⁠⁠⁠Ashok on LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠ Follow ⁠⁠⁠The Desi VC on LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠ Follow ⁠⁠⁠Akash Bhat on Twitter⁠⁠⁠ Follow ⁠⁠Akash Bhat on LinkedIn