An Operator's Blog - with Soumitra Sharma
by Soumitra Sharma
An Operator's Blog is hosted by Soumitra Sharma, General Partner at Operators Studio, a micro-VC firm focused on the US-India corridor. This podcast takes you into the world of startups and venture capital, featuring candid conversations focusing on sharing real operating insights, tips, and playbooks that you can immediately start using to solve your biggest challenges as a founder and operator. Join Soumitra as he cuts through the BS & interviews top founders, operators, and investors who have built businesses in the trenches for decades.
Episodes
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Building A Prosumer AI Startup: The Merlin Story
This episode delves in-depth into building a Prosumer AI startup. We cover everything from overlooked spaces in AI, how to choose problem statements as a founder, learnings on upfront market research & customer discovery, creating defensibility in Prosumer AI, managing the foundation model layer,...
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Agentic AI Meets Compliance: Lessons From Sprinto
This episode delves in-depth into building an AI Applications startup in the area of Compliance. We cover everything from how to choose problem statements as a founder including a 2x2 framework for idea evaluation, approaching building in “boring” verticals, executing an effective customer...
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Building An AI-Infra Startup In 2025: Seed-Stage Lessons From Pipeshift
This episode delves in-depth into the present market landscape, challenges & opportunities being navigated by AI infra startups in the Bay Area. We cover everything from parts of the AI ecosystem that are overhyped and underhyped, real AI infra pain points & apprehensions of enterprise customers,...
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From Zero to $1M ARR: Building a US–India Enterprise Dev Tools Startup
This episode goes in-depth into the key operating aspects of building & scaling a US-India Enterprise Dev Tools Startup. We cover everything from the ground reality of how AI is impacting enterprise dev tools, why engineering founders should code less & sell more, thinking through ICPs, MVP best...
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How Skydo Found Product-Market Fit in India’s Cross-Border B2B Payments
This episode goes in-depth into Skydo’s journey from Day 0 to emerging as a category leader in India's cross-border B2B payments today, helping more than 6,000 Indian products & services exporters receive payments from 150+ countries & in 32+ currencies. We cover everything from the untapped...
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Finding US Design Partners As An India-Based Cross-Border Founder I Learnings From 3 Venture-Backed Startups (Bitzer, Quolum, Redblock)
This episode goes in-depth into the key operating aspects of finding & working with US design partners as a US-India cross-border founder. We cover everything from correctly defining who a design partner is, major categories and personas on the B2B side, discovering, qualifying, convincing &...
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Building a US-India AI startup in fintech software
This episode goes in-depth into the key operating aspects of building & scaling a US-India cross-border AI startup serving the US financial services market. We cover everything from customer behavior & AI adoption patterns by large US financial services enterprises, approaches & frameworks for...
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Growing In The US Via On-Ground Hustle - The Goodmeetings Story
This episode explores US GTM strategies, playbooks, and learnings for US-India B2B founders. We cover everything from the playbook for finding the shortest way to PMF with the least capital raised, step-by-step framework for building B2B software MVPs, nuances of serving customers in the US vs...
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Engineering & Navigating Through An Exit For Your Startup
This episode goes in-depth into what founders can do to engineer & navigate an exit for their startup. We cover everything from various types of exit routes (classic M&A, Private Equity buyouts, acqui-hires, asset sales, etc.), what large acquirers look for, generating acquisition interest,...
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Ground Realities Of Moving To The US As An India-Based Founder
This episode discusses the ground realities and daily challenges of moving to the US to build your startup as an India-based founder. We cover everything from the first 90 days, logistics & compliance issues, acquiring early US customers, evolving the product roadmap from Indian to US customers,...
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[Audio Overview] Insight Arbitrage
Most investors try to “slot” startups in their heads, whereas extraordinary venture outcomes lie in the “slot violations”. Source post - https://operator.blog/2025/02/13/insight-arbitrage/ *Audio Overviews generated via NotebookLM. ***** Check out "An Operator's Blog" (https://operator.blog/) for...
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GTM Learnings For US-India B2B Martech Startups
This episode goes in-depth into building a US-India marketing tech startup. We cover everything from finding & engaging with 0-to-1 design partners, building MVPs, using Indian customers as a springboard to global markets, US GTM best practices & case studies, how to differentiate against global...
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[Audio Overviews] Avoiding Risk Of Ruin
Eliminating weak links that introduce the possibility of Ruin is key to thriving in the real world. Source post - https://operator.blog/2025/01/15/avoiding-risk-of-ruin/ *Audio Overviews generated via NotebookLM. ***** Check out "An Operator's Blog" (https://operator.blog/) for weekly posts on...
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AI Agent Landscape I Pivoting Your US-India SaaS Startup Into The Age Of AI
This episode goes in-depth into the current state of the AI Agent landscape and how US-India SaaS founders should manage this AI transition. In the 1st half, we cover key facets of the agentic market, including horizontal and vertical use cases, how customers are adopting them, challenges in…
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[Audio Overviews] My Best Ideas Of 2024: A Compilation
Presenting a compilation of my best ideas & observations from 2024. Source post - https://operator.blog/2024/12/26/my-best-ideas-of-2024-a-compilation/ *Audio Overviews generated via NotebookLM. ***** Check out "An Operator's Blog" (https://operator.blog/) for weekly posts on Startups, Investing,...
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[Audio Overviews] US-India/India-To-The-World: 2024 Recap, 2025 Expectations
From my vantage point as a US-India venture investor, sharing what I observed in 2024 and my expectations from 2025. Source post - https://operator.blog/2025/01/02/us-india-india-to-the-world-2024-recap-2025-expectations/ *Audio Overviews generated via NotebookLM. ***** Check out "An Operator's...
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Fundraising in Silicon Valley for Immigrant Founders
This episode explores the playbook, mindset, and tips to fundraise as an immigrant founder in Silicon Valley. We cover everything from dealing with cultural baggage, getting warm intros and building trust, prepping your startup to be venture-fundable, storytelling to stand out amongst the crowd,...
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Building a US-India robotics startup
This episode goes in-depth into building a US-India robotics startup. We cover everything from how to build robotics MVPs, acquire early US design partners, structure and manage a global supply chain, US GTM approaches, hire deep tech talent, and finally, tips and playbooks for fundraising in...
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GTM Learnings for US-India B2B SaaS Startups
This episode explores GTM strategies and learnings for US-India B2B SaaS startups. We cover everything from finding design partners in the US, scoping MVPs, figuring out what ICP to focus on, navigating the unique challenges of early PMF, GTM hiring in the US, and finally, working towards…
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Using community-building to drive growth as a US-India startup
This episode goes in-depth into various aspects of community-building as a US-India startup. We cover everything from should 0-to-1 founders spend time on community-building, what type of community-building initiatives to focus on, best practices from Airbase’s ‘Off the Ledger’ community of CFOs,...
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Going 0-to-1 as a US-India dev tool startup
This episode is an in-depth discussion of going 0-to-1 as a US-India dev tool startup. We cover everything from how to identify market gaps, ways to think about dev tools MVPs, leveraging the India developer market to build global products, comparing various GTM channels like Hacker News, GitHub,...
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Building products in Silicon Valley vs India
This episode goes in-depth into contrasting the product ecosystems of Silicon Valley versus India. We cover everything from similarities & differences between product leaders in both ecosystems, their product-building philosophies, what they can learn from each other, and a bonus section on how...
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US GTM Best Practices For Founders Starting-up in India
I am experimenting with a new format in this episode. To surface truly helpful operating tips and insights for India-based founders looking to expand in the US, this discussion goes in-depth into case studies across a startup’s lifecycle and based on real scenarios I frequently encounter as a...
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Leveraging curated events to drive US-India startup GTM
This is an in-depth discussion on how US-India startups can use curated events to drive US GTM. It covers topics such as what type and stage of startups are most suited for leveraging an event-based GTM strategy, operating learnings around event design and planning, a deep dive into the CXO...
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Where is the real opportunity in AI for Indian startups?
This is an in-depth jamming session on how Indian startups should look at AI, including real addressable opportunities, how to differentiate and compete against global competitors, what pre-AI SaaS startups should do to stay relevant, the India domestic AI opportunity, and finally, operating...
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Building successful products and PM careers in fintech II Learnings from Square and Mercury
The first half of this episode covers best practices and frameworks used by best-in-class fintech companies like Square and Mercury to build products and drive go-to-market. In the second half, we discuss insights and learnings for PM career planning in fintech, including ways to prepare for the...
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Doing 0-to-1 as a cybersecurity startup
This episode covers the brass tacks of doing 0-to-1 as a cybersecurity startup. We are joined by two venture-backed founders in the space, both of whom are also experienced engineering leaders in the domain: (1) Buchi Reddy (Founder and CEO, Levo.ai; ex-Traceable AI, ex-AppDynamics) (2) Ruchir...
About this show
An Operator's Blog is hosted by Soumitra Sharma, General Partner at Operators Studio, a micro-VC firm focused on the US-India corridor. This podcast takes you into the world of startups and venture capital, featuring candid conversations focusing on sharing real operating insights, tips, and playbooks that you can immediately start using to solve your biggest challenges as a founder and operator. Join Soumitra as he cuts through the BS & interviews top founders, operators, and investors who have built businesses in the trenches for decades.
Hosted by
Soumitra Sharma
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