The UpstreamLife

In this episode of theUpStreamLife I talk to Pavan Panchamukhi, the founder of RDEP.io which focuses on improving customer experiences with intelligent checkouts. Is this relevant? Let us find out more.00:00 - Introduction02:08 - Why serve retail?04:46 - Focus is on experience and engagement.08:40 - Physical Retail is evolving always.13:30 - Personalising for customers dynamically.19:08 - New age recommendation engines.23:51 - Value perception of new tech in India and why South Asia.29:00 - Passing through Corporate audits.32:00 - The race to be relevant and markets that are relevant.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this interview with Sudhir Kesavan, the COO and Executive Director of CitiusTech, theUpStreamLife delves deep into the healthcare ecosystem of the U.S.A to understand why healthcare unlike other industries has so much data, and yet is slow to embrace new technologies. At the heart of it is regulation and insurance, lets find out more about what is changing.00:00 - Introduction01:09 - What is Citiustech02:53 - Pharma and Care, how can they work together to ensure better service03:55 - The complexity of the healthcare stack10:00 - Decision making in the payer and provider industry18:08 - Actionability of AI.26:05 - Deploying AI in an era of hype.33:15 - US healthcare solving for social determinants of health.39:43 - Making a policy profitable with technology, wearing the CFO hat.46:14 - Life sciences as a business.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk with Priyanka Shah, the founder of Mohur.com, a platform that gives you a structure to source the right funds that are tailored for your company. Priyanka understands startup ecosystems along with the successes and the woes of running a company like no other. This is why Mohur was born, startups run out of funds although there are funds are available. Think about it - its a combination of debt funds, grants, VCs, PEs, and angels - find the right match with Mohur.00:15 - What is Mohur?03:50 - Why Mohur represents founder's first?06:35 - Does the platform work for VCs?08:32 - Mohur's moat12:19 - Enterprise versus the subscription model.16:00 - Making data insightful.20:20 - Aligning a team with the vision.26:32 - Getting the network to help a founder. 27:17 - What does Mohur mean?Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk to Xpheno's founder Kamal Karanth, who talks about Global Capability Centres and how the world of technology is gearing up for Artificial Intelligence. He talks about India and why it is poised for growth.00:00 - Introduction to Kamal.01:35 - What is Xpheno?03:12 - Engineers, AI and India.09:28 - How does Xpheno help GCCs?18:32 - Advantage of India's leadership.22:32 - The fear of AI, what is the reset.28:53 - India will export talent.33:35 - Making vocational courses available.39:00 - Opportunities in managing talent.44:35 - Podcasts that inspire Kamal.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode, which is a long form, we talk with Meenu Subbiah and her daughter Adithi about the business diamonds, authenticity and continuity. If you want to understand how it takes to build a business that lasts for thirty years then find out how things work.00:00 - A quick introduction to Meenu Subbiah Diamonds.00:43 - Getting inspired by her mother.03:00 - The love for history with jewellery.08:26 - Starting off very young in the U.S.A13:00 - Understanding jewellery - close setting jewellery.20:56 - The exclusive line of jewellery of Meenu Subbiah.23:48 - Customer journey - the purpose of buying.30:39 - Why jewellery itself is a culture?38:23 - History of the evolution.44:52 - Art to inspire the kids.58:00 - Explaining quality to customers.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk to Author Paul Roehrig about how the world is going to be embracing AI at scale.00:00 - Introduction02:08 - The role of Ascendion's engineers.06:44 - Evaluating AI at work.07:51 - What are CEOs preparing for in this era?12:56 - Platform engineering and data monetization.16:29 - Markets that are leading with AI.20:00 - Creating trusted outcomes.28:10 - Knowing the emotional resonance of using AI.31:48 - Energy and AI, why is it an important conversation to have.35:00 - Ability to innovate and partner with each other.36:09 - Thesis of Paul's books.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of theUpStreamlife we bring India's foremost retail experts Mr Devangshu Dutta, the founder of Third Eyesight, who gives you insights into brand building and consumption in India. This is made for founders who want to be building for the long run in India.00:00 - Introduction to context setting.01:55 - What is Third Eyesight03:30 - Organized retailing or modern trade - what is it?07:15 - Brands and quick commerce, have they broken mom and pop stores. 15:30 - Young brands going offline is all about scale.18:08 - Large FMCG companies will not innovate in new products.19:16 - Acquisitions of Indian brands will grow.24:45 - Infinite growth on a finite planet is impossible.25:04 - Frugal wardrobes and sustainability.29:37 - Building a brand, starting up with Friends, Family and Fools.37:20 - Traceability of ingredients and materials to tell a story.39:42 - The journey of plastic in India needs to be addressed.41:11 - Brands and market place tussles, the technology conversation.42:40 - Market places have the consumer relationship.45:12 - The cost of acquiring customers is high for brands now, monopoly!48:38 - Working with startupsSupport the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of theUpStreamLife we bring to you stories from people who love a finance career and how they shaped it to learn about businesses. Shreya Ravi is a CA who is part of a sustainability fund called ZeCa Capital.00:00 - Introduction01:52 - Being inspired at home.05:45 - Finding the right college.13:36 - Teachers do influence you.15:00 - Preparing to become a CA.16:23 - Working with the Big-4 and what you learn while there.21:25 - Storyboarding a project.25:35 - Understand what you are doing first before presenting it to business.32:26 - Being in a VC firm that promotes environment and sustainability.36:55 - Planning a career.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of theUpStreamLife we bring to you Ankur Capital's Deep Science Report which outlines how the deep science startup ecosystem is progressing with increased industry participation.  @ankur_capital  In this episode Alysha Maria Lobo talks with Vishal Katariya and Suraj Nair of Ankur Capital.00:00 - Introduction to why deep science is mainstream.01:36 - Scientists and PhDs are coming back to India.05:40 - Fragility of the deep science ecosystem.08:52 - Benchmarking deep science startups.13:03 - Patents are a great measure.19:40 - Scaling deep science with CVCs.23:14 - Is manufacturing deep tech growing.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of theUpStreamlife covering the  @ankur_capital Deep Science Forum we bring to you Professor B Gurumoorthy and Professor C V Natraj, from the IISc, who talk about the history of Indian innovation in tech and the startup world.00:00 - Introduction to the discussion.01:48 - Building while being capital strapped in 1947.03:10 - Why there was a supply and demand gap in India.04:24 - Innovations at a lage corporate.08:01 - Long term benefits of investing in innovation.10:23 - Industry and Science need to be on common ground to scale.13:15 - Government's history with deep science.14:10 - Revive polytechnic schools.16:12 - Industry is now working with academia.19:09 - Genome sequencing and how it helped us.22:09 - Indian companies need to work with startups.24:20 - Role of startups.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode Ritu Varma, the founder of  @ankur_capital talks with Dr Vikram Rao about the importance of intellectual property to tell a story and create value.00-00 - Ritu sets the context of building value in deep tech with IP02:53 - Two buckets of intellectual property - patents and know-how.08:25 - Do agreements hold when business of deep tech is across countries.09:23 - Giving away patents for free.15:29 - Protecting Scientific Discovery or Formulations.17:00 - IP Strategy with platform technology.23:18 - Convincing customers about IP.30:48 - Raising money to match customer demand.37:19 - Understand your business model.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of  @ankur_capital Ankur Capital's Deep Science Forum, Rishi Srivastava of OffGrid Energy Labs talks to Avishek Kumar, Co-founder, VFlowtech, Sri Sailaja Nori, Co-founder and CSO, Sea6 Energy, and Kedar Medhi, Innovation Advisor, ex-Director Philips Ventures about the value of deep tech in manufacturing and how to navigate regulation along with business.00:00 - Rishi sets the context to the panel07:30 - Kedar talks about knowing the value of the manufactured device and its use case in order to cross all regulation compliances.12:20 - Avishek talks about how to manage scale with policy level expectations and validating the product by selling the product15:00 - Why Avishek got into solar manufacturing .17:20 - Need for grid level batteries.21:23 - Sailaja talks about Sea6 and the future of feedstock.26:00 - Sea6 Energy's growth as a deep tech firm.30:03 - CVCs or Corporate Ventures taking bets on deep tech.35:00 - Scaling deep tech ventures with ecosystem.38:32 - Q&ASupport the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we capture why Deep Science ventures need to scale and how they are going to scale. Deep science startups are responsible to several stakeholders, but they also need several stakeholders to support them inorder to scale. In this panel discussion with Dr Renuka Diwan, the founder of BioPrime, and Deepak Shapeti from Morphing Machines we learn how deep science can prosper and progress in India as the ecosystem of funds, scientists, market and government are coming together as one.  @ankur_capital   00:00 - Vishal Krishna of theUpStreamLife sets the context to the journey.02:00 - BioPrime's Dr Renuka on what her startup is doing for farmers.06:40 - Making an impact with microbes that nurture crops.08:52 - Agriculture fertilizer must be utilized efficiently.10:48 - The story of Morphing Machines - flexible compute platform.12:36 - GPU supply chain and the global context.16:00 - The need for an Indian customer for Indian processors.19:21 - Value of Morphing Machines for telecom.22:14 - Scaling up to make agri ecosystems work.27:53 - Being food secure.29:00 - Why getting the first sale is important for Indian deep tech startups.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we bring you Prashant Nair, one of the four astronaut's trained  at ISRO #isro for the #Gaganyaan Mission. Prashant talks about why India's space mission is built on inclusivity and furthering human collaboration. Ankur Capital's Deep Science Forum captured India's moment in making scientific ideas become mainstream businesses.  @ankur_capital  @IN-SPACe  00:00 - Prasant Nair sets the context to the Deep Science Forum.03:00 - The Mathematics, Algorithms, Romance and Poetry of space travel.06:36 - Deep tech is for everyone, it is for humanity and all living things.09:00 - Why an Indian should go to Space?12:00 - Why the Gaganyaan moment matters?14:15 - Prashant falling in love with flying.17:16 - Shed the colonial past.20:40 - Art and Science beyond #ai 21:28 - The story of Ganesha and Skanda: the Indian waySupport the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk about the business of robotics and how it can be made-in-India. Raghu is the co-founder of Anscer Robotics and wants to make 00:00 - Introduction01:40 - Intelligence for warehouses.10:07 - How does it work within an ecosystem?18:00 - Selling in India and why the ecosystem is evolving?26:00 - The SME story in robotics.29:51 - Making robots inexpensive for Indian companies.37:49 - Funding robotics in India and protecting intellectual property44:19 - Components should be available globally if you build Robots.51:30 - Support of the founders.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk to Sriram Kannan the co-founder of Routematic about how he has made more than 20 cities and their private corporations use smart mobility to ensure employees come to the office on time and are safely reached home after a tiring day.00:00 - Routematic and its journey.05:44 - The customer profile and how they use Routematic14:40 - Why government can use data from Routematic about city productivity.21:40 - Smart communities and cities.34:44 - Understanding corporate SLAs.36:33 - How not to stagnate?42:25 - Final thoughtsSupport the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of theUpStreamLife we talk to Ashish Singhal, the co-founder of Coinswitch who talks about regulation in crypto currencies, retail investors and the rise of crypto as an investment class.00:00 - Introduction01:22 - A quick short history on crypto exchanges in India.06:00 - How to invest in crypto - have a long term mindset.12:00 - Talking to government about Web3, payments and its impact.18:19 - Managing stakeholders like VCs19:58 - Crypto assets, Security and Protection25:17 - Developers who love to build on blockchain.29:41 - Blockchain and its future as a technology.35:46 - Startups in the Web3 space.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk to GitHub's Karan M V about how AI and Open Source is converging.00:00 - Introduction to the podcast.02:00- The open source community and the developers.12:48 - Open source has revolutionized technology.15:43 - Why you must use open source.21:00 - Productivity gains with AI29:38 - Developers globally36:00 - How AI agents operate?36:55 - College students and AI, humans cannot fear.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk with Acuity Analytics and its tech head Arijit Mitra who talks about how tech is always about generating insights.00:00- Introduction03:40 - Transformation to AI and the new tech layer.13:00 - AI and what should engineers think of.20:00 - Corporations and how are they evolving with AI31:07 - How is tech playing out globally?Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this video Ideaspring's founder, Naganand talks to Gyrophint's scientist and co-founder, Siva Umapathy, about the power of Indian deep science and Gyrophint's readers which save lives.00:00 - Introduction01:00 - The beginning of Siva's India journey.06:28 - The early days of using Raman Spectroscopy.11:00 - Convincing people to invest in science based startups.17:07 - The products of Gyrophint and their applications.28:30 - Listening to users and building on the AI.32:20 - Going to market, in India and abroad.35:30 - Tech must be democratized to help everyone.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk with Ajay Nair, General Manager - Platforms, Elastic, about enterprises building their business with AI.00:00 - Introduction.01:00 - Generative AI as a data problem.05:18 - Driving value with AI.09:00 - The problem of fragmentation.11:07 - Regions and AI adoption.14:10 - Thoughts on the developer community in India.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of theUpStreamLife we talk with Baha Azarmi, the global VP, Customer Engineering, Elastic about new developments at the company. We unlock the power of Elastic's technology for corporations and how it plays a major role in the era of AI.00:00 - Introduction01:09 - Roadmap to innovation at Elastic03:00 - Being relevant in the era of LLMs.04:40 - Being cost effective for businesses.07:52 - What are customers using Elastic for?11:56 - Learning from customers.12:49 - Opportunity with Indian startups.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode I meet with ace seed stage and Series-A investor Shashank Randev, the founder of 247VC. He talks about about how India is changing its outlook towards deep tech and consumer businesses. He talks about all things that will continue to make India rise over the next decade.00:00 - Introduction to the episode in BHive.02:53 - 247VC and how it views the Indian startup ecosystem.05:53 - The growth that mattered between 2014 and 2021.09:22 - The seeding of ideas that made impact.16:00 - Enterprise tech, deep tech and more.19:30 - The concept of LLMs for Indian business clusters.26:32 - LLMs in manufacturing to consumer brands.31:35 - The zero plastic industry and India needs this.34:00 - Growth of brands and sustainability in the true sense 41:09 - India is rapidly changing.47:57 - Comparing to China is not correct48:29 - SaaS versus Agent AI - the vantage points.54:10 - What do the Enterprises need from startups.58:15 - Books that Shashank loves.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode Ideaspring Capital's founder Naganand talks with Bharath Bakkaraju, the founder of Phyx44, a company manufacturing recombinant protein. They are a deep tech company that is figuring out the alternative to milk and the emission caused by dairy cattle. The numbers are stark and you have to listen to this conversation to understand why companies like Phyx44 are the future in mankind's evolution to consuming protein from a lab and reducing emissions in the form of methane from cattle.00:00 - Introduction to Phyx44.01:00 - Bharath's background, recombinant protein and Phyx44.03:55 - Cattle, emissions and the problem statement 08:00 - Whey protein and sugar, making the replacement a reality.10:00 - Folding molecules that can ensure a sweet taste.11:29 - India has to manage its sugar obsession carefully.13:00 - Getting Phyx44 growing and making its prototype work.15:20 - What is the way to beat sugar based protein?Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode I talk with Bhavdeep Reddy, angel investor in several companies and founder of Access Developers. In this four decade career he has seen it all - from the rise of #ITservices  to #cloudcomputing  to #ai. What has remained constant in this rise is the growth of cities and development. Bhavdeep, also known as Bobby, talks about growth that is inclusive in this podcast.Note: Bobby is an investor in theUpStreamLife and thanks to BHive for being a fabulous workspace..00:00 - Introduction03:31 - Why make farmers partners.06:06 - Institutional land banking.09:43 - The returns in this model of partnership.13:43 - Farmers sell land and don't use the money wisely.18:28 - Land always appreciates and sustainable buildings in urban regions.25:37 - Making this model work.29:00 - BHive's transformation.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk to Arun, the founder of Articul8, an LLM company that focuses on building models specifically trained for enterprise scale and security. Learn a lot more about the AI wars in this episode, which is similar to the cloud wars that began more than a decade ago between AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. This time around startups like Articul8 have the ability to scale in a niche market. Let us find out Arun's strategy to scale the company. 00:00 - Introduction.04:26 - Training the AI models.11:40 - AI stack and how will it look like in organisations.17:08 - Infrastructure and how it is changing.24:19 - Buying habits of the customer (CTO) in the era of GPTs.32:05 - Handling the noise in the business of LLMs.39:33 - India cannot escape from the LLM race, we need boldness in ideas.45:14 - The current LLMs are still very Western led, not inclusive as yet.50:27 - Hiring for a startup is tough.55:13 - Reading advice on AI (Sebastian Raschka and Jay Alammar).Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk to Vinay Singh, the co-founder and Partner at Fireside Ventures. Vinay's Venture Capital firm has bet on Indian brands even before the world believed that India can be capable of building long term brands. They got their thesis right by betting on companies that defined India's aspiring consumers. India is ripe for growth, it also needs to think of sustainability. Here are Vinay's thoughts. Don't forget to like and subscribe to the podcasts.00:00 - A quick introduction to the conversation.00:45 - Statistical references to India's growth.03:38 - The growth happened and so has its per capita income.07:38 - India's story beyond cities.11:15 - Fireside's thoughts on AI and brands.19:30 - Demand planning has changed to micro demand in manufacturing.24:35 - The future of customer experience.31:00 - Being climate first.36:00 - New channels of consumption.40:00 - Journey towards falling in love with the environment.43:48 - Fireside's bet on creating iconic Indian brands.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk with Manoj Kumar, the founder of deep tech venture building foundation Social Alpha. This venture development platform started as a passion project but overtime it has helped over 350 startups. The model of Social Alphas unique as in it works with foundations to achieve their deep tech goals. Enjoy the interview.00:00 - Introduction01:48 - Social Alpha's early days.09:06 - Aligning incentives with those Social Alpha works with to foster deep tech research.19:51 - Difference in Indian deep tech versus India30:30 - Deep tech cannot solve problems in India as a cookie cutter model.40:44 - Working on the foundation/CSR model.46:45 - Deep tech from smaller towns.47:50 - Deep tech innovations are needed in India.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode Naganand Doraswamy of Ideaspring Capital talks to Litemed founders about pain management devices and their efficacy.00:00 - Introduction to Litemed 00:33 - What does Litemed do?02:58 - Building a device for pain management and the science of it.08:14 - Litemed's go-to-market strategy.12:39 - Innovative marketing of Litemed.15:50 - Marketing spends and getting people to buy the product.19:23 - Using Litemed.21:00 - Key challenges of the startup.26:13 - Figuring out the market as you scale.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of theUpStreamLife we talk with Jay Modh, serial entrepreneur and startup investor.00:00 - Introduction01:35 - Transformation with Intuitive04:44 - Companies that need to innovate fast.09:40 - Acceleration versus stagnation.14:47 - Buying habits from clients and what is changing.23:00 - Why India is changing fast25:00 - Kids should start learning the value of money.28:24 - Startup investments and what they mean.34:00 - Having the right vision, being with people who believe in you.37:50 - Don't be handicapped by changing technology.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk to Bruce Keith, the co-founder of InvestorAi, a systematic investing platform. 00:00 - Introduction to the episode.01:00 - Bruce Keith and India.02:00 - India's demographic dividend and its advantage.03:00 - Fund management globally and in India.05:00 - Indian mindset and the U.S mindset in equities investment.07:00 - Indians experimenting with F&O and its youth doing it.09:15 - Indianisation of investing is happening.10:18 - Regulation is good.11:19 - Different types of investing AI, machine learning, quant, stats.14:22 - The machine's perception of the market today.19:46 - You cannot just input data, you need to train the machine.23:25 - "Everybody tells you when to buy, they do not tell you when to sell."26:30 - Global money and the why Empires trumpet before the fall.29:10 - Changing India, the energy of youth.30:23 - India's power and its global diaspora. 32:00 - India's talent and India a couple of decades ago.36:49 - India in comparison with the geo-politics today.38:38 - InvestorAi and the AI talent.42:10 - Agentic AI and LLMs.47:00 - Selling InvestorAi to stakeholders51:00 - AI metrics and standards.53:32 - Engineers are using AI to build base code already.55:01 - Giving brokers the power research.57:08 - New products coming out of InvestorAi.59:38 - AI is a tool to improve your chances.01:00:00 - A brave new world.01:05:58 - Bruce and the news.01:11:11 - Influences from Bruce's father.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we catch up with Manas Ranjan, the co-founder of DrinkPrime, who tells us about how India is subscribing to his company's services. The access to clean drinking water and its narrative is something that he explains to us eloquently. Lets us find out India's working class and water narratives mean for us.00:00 - Introduction.01:54 - Consumer's perception of water.08:34 - The idea of DrinkPrime.15:45 - Finding people or an OEM to build the device.21:37 - Many disorganised players in the ecosystem.26:23 - Pricing for the device.32:23 - Solving the customer problem rather than sell the device.43:30 - Access to clean drinking water, an Indian's journey.49:22 - What is sustainability and relevance to the consumer.54:51 - What is Manas reading?Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk with Udippta Das,  the founding team member and head of product development at Skara. The startup is founded in Guwahati, Assam. Udippta talks about why this technology enables Indian creators to make more money than share it with third party distribution apps. 00:00 - Introduction02:20 - The inspiration behind Skara07:04 - Freedom to monetise13:15 - What if you have a million followers?17:40 - Building a tech business in Assam.23:45 - Skara is bot free.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of theUpStreamLife we talk with the founders of Numocity.Ideaspring's founder Naganand Doraswamy talks to the Numocity founders Ravi and Siddharth about their global play.00:00 - Introduction00:52 - From early stage to success.02:50 - EV is mainstream.06:02 - EV market in five years.10:22 - Robustness of the Numocity tech stack15:20 - Being a globally recognised brand. 20:08 - Deep research in the EV market25:08 - Markets that will be big in EVSupport the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we speak with Joydip Gupta who is the APAC head of Scienaptic Systems. Joydip talks about the evolution of the business rule engine in banking and how algorithms today are intelligent to understand an individual's banking needs faster than in the past. Algorithms today allow a risk officer's team to look at the credit history of an individual and customise a financial product.00:00 - Introduction02:12 - Scienaptic - what is it?03:43 - Enabling a bank's revenues.07:55 - Using data to build intelligence.14:40 - The journey with technology in banks.18:00 - Understanding the end customer.22:22 - The business of co-op banks26:21 - Deploying the BRE and its components32:40 - Understanding the needs of a business owner.44:44 - How CROs work with AISupport the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

00:00 - Introduction to Ambee.00:30 - Maddy’s vision of starting Ambee.05:00 - The early days: air quality monitoring and scaling the solution.07:41 -  Building a data first climate intelligence platform.09:20 - The NASA moment.10:00 - The science of Ambee and its impact.16:00 - The business of Ambee - sales, product market fit.20:30 - The short term, mid term and long term plans of business.22:50 - The business of trust in monitoring air quality.25:02 - The core is the data in this business.26:38 - Being married as “founders” for eight years.32:00 - Why hedge funds want Ambee’s data.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode I talk with Sujatha S Iyer, the head of AI Security  @manageengine . ManageEngine enables enterprises to be future ready when it comes to their critical IT, where security is a critical aspect while scaling an organisation. Sujatha paints a wonderful story on how CIOs and CTOs should look at security in the era of AI and the evolution of an enterprise's defences against malware.00:00 - Introduction to Sujatha03:00 - Early security, which were rule based.05:10 - Proactiveness of malware these days.07:32 - Ensuring digital maturity09:20 - After being digitally mature, security has several use cases.12:35 - Combating AI attacks with AI defences.15:00 - Being a proactive security manager today.19:09 - LLMs in the large Enterprise world - traditional and new methods.20:30 - LLMs, agentic AI - beyond the hype.23:20 - Reactive to productive security and how AI helps.29:20 - The future of the security stack - the ManageEngine advantage.32:49 - Training LLMs within your network.35:30 - It is all about compliance when it comes to security.37:00 - Research and rapid learning at ManageEngine.39:14 - Developer productivity with AI is going to shoot up.40:58 - Your understanding of math should be good even while using AI. 41:41 - Sujatha's love for Maths and her love for continuous learning.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk to Vijay Arisetty, the founder of Aurm, who went from being in the Airforce to becoming the co-founder of MyGate. Aurm is a special project with a special purpose because a majority of urban Indians are living in a gated community and these communities don't have access to safe-deposit lockers. Aurm is a new age safe deposit company and Vijay explains to us about the market size for this business. There is also a lot of technology behind it. Enjoy this episode.00:00 - Introduction to Aurm04:20 - Gated communities need lockers.09:58 - Bank's cannot scale lockers.14:55 - Why Aurm works for the customer?19:30 - Aurm's security protocols to protect customer assets.26:00 - Behaviour of people in gated-communities in storing gold/jewellery.33:31 - Aurm's pricing and its users.38:42 - Insuring lockers - a different way to look at the service.43:00 - The market opportunity and the team.43:40 - Transforming oneself to becoming a better entrepreneur.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we have Naganand Doraswamy, the founder of Ideaspring Capital who interviews Parithi Govindaraju about the future of made-in-India drones and the technology that powers them. Parithi comes from the field of deep science and his interest in aerospace has enabled him to build Okulo Aerospace to capture the High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite space. He has thoughts on long-endurance drones and you will love this podcast because the government of India has launched a deep tech fund and has increased the size of funding for startups through the fund-of-funds program.00:30 - Introduction to Parithi of Okulo.04:20 - Okulo Aerospace - its genesis.06:15 - Building Okulo to the future.09:20 - The market that Okulo is after - the opportunities, the challenges.14:10 - Okulo's focus in the market.19:10 - Listening to customers - solar electric hybrids & HAPS.22:49 - Talent management in this industry.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com we have Sriniketh Chakravarthi, the CEO of Apexon who talks about new age IT Services and how the world of industry is changing with technology.00:00 - Introduction02:00 - Engineering, data and experience.07:00 - Managing the entire cycle of technology.10:27 - Mapping the old and new.20:00 - Complete transformation, failures and making it work for CTOs.25:00 - AI agents and Saas transformation.35:44 - Working with startups and the Apexon journey.41:35 - Why change is difficult, but why change is important.49:32 - Being in the CEO role.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com we talk about AI and ethics. The conversation is led by Padmashree Shagrithaya, one of the leading proponents of ethical AI from India. As EVP and MD of Insights & Data GBL at Capgemini, she is preparing organisations to understand how AI should be built around the foundation of ethical principles. Listen to this podcast as we start the year 2025 with these difficult questions of AI, accountability and ethics.00:00 - Introduction to the subject.01:30 - What is AI? Building a context.09:23 - Ethical AI in its foundation.14:00 - Ethical layer applies to infrastructure, algorithms and use cases.18:23 - Infringements while using AI.22:40 - Energy utilisation in AI and can compute be standardised.28:00 - Responsibilities of the ecosystem towards ethical AI33:00 - Trust, generative AI and Small Language Models.35:35 - Implementations of ethical AI.45:50 - Can AI help children learn.49:16 - Conversations around ethical practicals.52:11 - Padmashree's reading list.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com we talk with Abhimanyu Saxena, the co-founder of Scaler about how corporations and nations will manage the future of productivity. This episode focuses  how organisations in India, Global Capability Centres, are focusing on building transformative talent.02:00 - Being in a nervous planet: people and technology.06:46 - Many technology revolutions that created jobs.10:10 - Managing youth and energy, making them productive.15:30 - Selling to CHROs in GCCs, transforming the talent pool.22:00 - Large companies on training talent.24:20 - Governments and their role in managing talent.26:00 - Being relevant as an entrepreneur - journey of Abhimanyu.32:00 - Building a business in tech-education in India.37:06 - Managing the marketing of great content.39:22 - Managing scale.42:03 - Keeping the story of a business alive with the right goals.44:30 - Being an avid reader and being a fan of Russian and Hindi literature.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of theUpStreamLife we talk with Ben Goodman, SVP and GM APJ, at Okta. He talks about identity management and security in the era of collaboration where corporations work with thousands of vendors or freelancers. We also talk about cricket and sports as an enabler to being resilient to daily challenges. 00:00 - Introduction01:33 - What is Okta?04:50 - Identity becoming important.08:30 - Working with people outside the system.10:38 - Convincing CTOs of working with creative collaboration.19:00 - Security evolving with AI.21:30 - Industry standards for customer identity management.26:00 - Why should startups be on Okta?26:55 - Being a cricketer and a cyclist - Ben's influences and advice.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk to Jagdish, the founder of MM-Activ, who is the OG of the Indian events and exhibitions industry. He talks about how India is changing with events.00:00 - Introduction01:29 - Waking up to mega events05:32 - What does a mega-event do to a city?11:16 - Organising the event industry.15:50 - Every Indian who went to America wants to give back.16:05 - TIE Global as an event and other large events in India.21:29 - The Bengaluru Tech Summit.27:10 - Being influenced by ideology as an youngster.29:20 - Working in a magazine in the early days.33:44 - Starting up in the events industry.42:06 - Being in the media business to deliver value.46:54 - Building intellectual property.51:22 - Being inspired by theatre.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we talk to Anup Jain, an ace early stage investor and believer in the next billion story. He is a VC investor who wants to work with 12 startups a year, and runs a startup knowledge series called the "LP Series" on LinkedIn.00:00 - Introduction04:10 - India's 2.0 story of VCs09:00 - LPs are asking for returns from the startup word and here is why14:52 - Investing in VC spin-offs.21:30 - Having a fund that is institutional.26:08 - India's VC 2.0 needs one change - be institutional.31:39 - Boardroom battles of the Indian startup ecosystems, which everyone misses and why it killed value.35:00 - The new fund thesis and India needs new ideas.44:00 - Changing consumer mindsets.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we bring you Madan Padaki, veteran entrepreneur and TiE Bangalore - President. He talks about why the TiE Global Summit is not just going to be an event, but a large networking session where ideas such as deep tech, hard tech and sustainability will play a major role in the future of business.00:00 - Introduction01:46 - India has come a long way with entrepreneurs.04:41 - India's talent and opportunities.07:11 - The summit at Bengaluru and Mysuru.11:00 - Nanopreneurs today.16:00 - The impact of family offices.17:50 - Nano-networks and their impact.21:40 - The pace of change in the global south.22:43 - TiE for the new age entrepreneur.26:55 - TiE's college/university play.28:30 - Mysuru and TiE 31:35 - The sessions in the Summit.36:27 - India's policy changes and Karnataka's support for entrepreneurs38:19 - Having fun at the event.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode I talk with Chander Damodraran, the MD and CTO of Brillio about how AI led transformation is possible at scale.00:00 - What is Brillio?03:35 - Matching the old with the new.11:41 - Tech transitions for customers.21:05 - New age technology in retail.25:15 - Why customers want Indian talent.29:23 - The future of enhancing talent in India.34:34 - Managing time as a leader.37:00 - The Brillio focus on global markets.42:00 - Looking at new tech and inspirations.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode we bring you a piece of Bengaluru's modern history. No other restaurant chain is so well known as Empire. Its young CEO, Shakir Haq talks about all the decisions that he took to make this multi-million dollar business remain family first and still be a company that runs on sound management principles. It's a fascinating journey of transformation and perseverance for Shakir, who was always interested in automobiles and technology. His entry into the family business and rise happened with sheer grit.00:00 - Introduction01:51 - Bengaluru means so much to the Empire brand  03:40 - Scaling the brand.08:08 - Blending experience with technology, especially the old chefs.11:30 - The operations of the stores.14:00 - Experimenting and scaling in the era of technology.16:00 - Joining the company as a management trainee21:00 - Firing a senior manager & garnering support from a team.25:00 - Managing consistency of taste and challenges many brands face.29:00 - Experiments that worked, failed and the evolution of Empire.32:00 - Going to the central kitchen concept.38:40 - Standing apart in the business.44:00 - Working towards a farm to fork linkage47:23 - Accelerating new brands.49:28 - Being bootstrapped even as a lot of PE Funds want a piece.53:00 - Retaining workers in the Blue Collar segment.56:00 - The need for grooming those who work part time.01:03:57 - Being inspired by Dad and handling COVID-1901:08:05 - Learning to run a professional business.01:11:50 - Family firstSupport the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com we talk Godard Abel, the CEO and co-founder of G2 who talks about why the G2.com platform is far better, and trusted, than Gartner in guiding people towards buying software. Gartner serves Fortune500 CIOs/CTOs, but what about an entire universe of business; this is where G2 enables small companies and SMBs, or even large corporations, to search for software that works for them. Rather than getting stuck with clunky software G2's authentic reviews ensures a safe and secure way of buying software for many businesses. Enjoy this podcast.00:00 - Introduction to G202:23 - "Unicorn" : Godard's thoughts on the early days of G2.04:08 - Software eating the world, buffet of products for companies.06:26 - Going beyond recommendations of friends to buy products.07:29 - Building a system of "trust" for software reviews.08:25 - The product story behind the "trust."09:59 - Creating a community for new software products 11:38 - The objective of G2's research team.12:50 - Listing products for free on G2 for a young startup.15:05 - Community of G2 is growing in India.15:39 - Gartner & G2, a comparison: the user knows more than the analyst.17:18 - Meeting the Gartner founder and learning.21:10 - Technology on "Ruby on Rails" and the AI play.22:22 - G2's AI "Monty" to find the software that works for a company. 24:42 - Listening to customers to grow.26:00 - Generative AI: its applications.26:52 - AI is important theme for everyone to make sense of data.27:56 - A global company, but will focus on India as well.29:00 - APAC and the south-Asia region.30:41 - The early days of starting and its lessons.31:35 - Getting past failure, being persistent for seven years.34:30 - The support system that mattered for Godard.35:40 - The learning from Godard Sr., and why it mattered.36:50 - Building a team on grit and values.38:00 - Marty Cagan's "Transformed"38:35 - "Inner Engineering" by Sadhguru.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube

In this episode of theUpStreamLife.com, we speak with Sabre India's managing director Sriram Gopalswamy. Sriram talks about the evolution of the travel industry from mainframes to Saas; powering online travel agents, and customer experiences.00:00 - Introduction02:00 - Sriram talks about what happens at Sabre worldwide.11:15 - Creating a seamless experience.17:12 - Technology and evolution from the Sabre India perspective.24:00 - The dynamic play of tech34:36 - Making customer experience a success.42:18 - The modern tech stack54:00 - Being inspired by sport.Support the showThanks for Listening! Follow Us on  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Find us on YouTube