On The Rise

Today we spoke with Rushil Srivastava, the Co-Founder of Simplify, a startup that helps applicants get personalized job recommendations based on their experience and backgrounds, and efficiently apply to multiple job openings at once. So far, Simplify has facilitated millions of applications. Rushil discusses his founder journey, dropping out of UC Berkeley, his experience and biggest takeaways from Y Combinator (W21), his most memorable experiences as a founder, and so many more!

On The Rise is a student-led podcast, which aims to inspire the next generation of leaders. Today we spoke with Riddhi Khanna, an associate at Berkeley SkyDeck Fund, which provides pre-seed and seed funding to teams going through the Berkeley SkyDeck accelerator program. It is funded by top VC firms such as Sequoia Capital, Sierra Ventures, and Canvas Ventures, and closed its $60 Million Fund II last year. Riddhi discusses how she got started at SkyDeck, the qualities of strong founding teams, the qualities SkyDeck looks for in early-stage startups, and her advice for young leaders looking to get started in venture capital.

On The Rise is a student-led podcast, which aims to inspire the next generation of leaders. Today we spoke with Isabella Mandis, the founder and CEO of Girls Who VC, an organization dedicated to bringing young women into the field of venture capital. Since starting back in December, Girls Who VC has accumulated thousands of followers across Linkedin and Instagram, grown to a team of 30+ members and ambassadors, and started their own podcast. Isabella discusses her inspiration for launching Girls Who VC, her experience as the first undergrad partner at the MBA Fund, her tips for fast, organic growth, and her advice for young leaders looking to start their own initiatives.

On The Rise is a student-led podcast, which aims to inspire the next generation of leaders. Today we spoke with Shubh Malde, the founder and CEO of Arda, a venture-backed enterprise startup that enables transportation companies to easily use drones to make deliveries. Arda is launching in West Africa, starting with a pilot program to serve 10 health centers with a catchment size of 250,000 people for last-mile deliveries. Shubh discusses his founder journey, dropping out of the University of Chicago, his experience organizing Arda's pilot contracts in The Gambia, raising his pre-seed round, and his advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

On The Rise is a student-led podcast, which aims to inspire the next generation of leaders. Today we spoke with Simi Shah. Simi is the founder/host of the incredible South Asian Trailblazers Podcast, which dives deep into the professional journeys of South Asian leaders and innovators, and recently served as Chief of Staff to Indra Nooyi, former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. She discusses the biggest takeaways learned from her nearly 50 interviews, the lessons she learned from Ms. Nooyi, her advice for young leaders looking to start their own initiatives, and more. 

On The Rise is a student-led podcast, which aims to inspire the next generation of leaders. Today we spoke with Jadyn Bryden. Jadyn is the Vice President at Xfund, an early-stage venture capital firm built to back entrepreneurs who think laterally and experiment across disciplines. Jadyn discusses what investors look for in early-stage startups, the qualities of strong founder teams, when is the right time to start a company, and her advice for young leaders looking to go into venture capital.

On The Rise is a student-led podcast, which aims to inspire the next generation of leaders. Today we spoke with Aadit Palicha. Aadit is the founder of Zepto, a quick commerce startup that delivers groceries in 10 minutes! Zepto just recently closed its Series D funding round, raising $200M. Aadit discusses his founder journey, dropping out of Stanford University, his incredible success so far, his experience with Y Combinator, what's next for Zepto, and his advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. 

On The Rise is a student-led podcast, which aims to inspire the next generation of leaders. Today we spoke with Kat Mañalac. Kat is a partner at Y Combinator, a top startup accelerator (1-2% acceptance rate) that has backed companies like Airbnb, Instacart, and Stripe. Kat heads YC's outreach initiatives and has worked with thousands of top YC startups. Kat discusses how she got started, the secret to YC's success, the skills founders need to be successful, tips for startups looking to apply for YC, fundraising do's and don'ts, and her advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. 

On The Rise is a student-led podcast, which aims to inspire the next generation of leaders. Today we spoke with Abhinav Kommula, a machine learning researcher and a current student at the M.E.T. Program at U.C. Berkeley. He has won numerous math and computer science competitions and reached the Platinum Division of the United States Computing Olympiad, the competition’s highest division. Abhinav discusses how he got started in competitive programming, how this contributed to his real-world programming experiences, and his recommendations for aspiring software engineers and developers. 

On The Rise is a student-led podcast, which aims to inspire the next generation of leaders. Today we spoke with Maanav Khaitan, a director at the startup accelerator Free Ventures, the developer of numerous products (Beacon Safety, Apoyo, etc.), and a current student at U.C. Berkeley's Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology Program. Maanav discusses what motivated him to build his many projects, how he determined what problems to solve, and described his incredible experience with the M.E.T. program so far.