#DamaniTalks
by Anirudh A DamaniI look for exciting people doing unique things, often being entrepreneurs and people with startup experience. Instead of just talking about 'what' they do, I want to bring out the 'why' behind what it is they do. Live every Thursday night at 9 - 10 pm on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter @showmedamani.
Copyright: Anirudh A Damani
Episodes
#DamaniTalks - Ask Me Anything on 'Personal Finances for founders'
56m · PublishedFounders of early-stage startups face many financial constraints at the onset. Mismanagement of personal finance is a common reason why many companies are forced to wind up their businesses. So, I'm here to help you out!
In this special episode, I covered the topic of 'Personal Finance for founders'
Takeaways from this episode:
- Why did I choose this particular topic? What are some financial constraints that early-stage startup founders are unaware of?
- How do early-stage startups protect against mismanagement of funds? How should one know which functions to not invest in that drain and might not yield a return?
- Is it acceptable for founders building a product to do a part-time job? When should a founder start drawing his/her monthly salary? What parameters should early-stage startups use to decide the right salary for a founder?
- Does getting a safe note affect valuation? How should one define what expenses should be expensed out from the company and what shall not? If a company is running on a freemium model, what is considered as traction for early-stage startups?
- How much personal funding too much risk for a founder? At what stage can a founder look at becoming an angel investor? What are the cardinal rules of saving and investing when you're an entrepreneur?
- What measures or precautions should a new or early-stage founder, with limited savings or personal funding to rely on, take? What are the common challenging monetary situations founders find themselves in?
Episode XXXiv- Abhishek Agarwal, Founder of Rockstud Capital
58m · PublishedAbhishek Agarwal is an angel investor-turned-fund manager with 13+ years in the Indian Financial Market and Start-up Ecosystem. He started his career as a research analyst and is now the Founder of Rockstud Capital. He has a proven track record of successfully investing in both Startups and Listed Equities space.
Rockstud Capital is India's first hybrid fund that invests in early-stage startups and listed equities traded on NSE in India.
Key takeaways from the episode:
- What does Pioneer Investcorp do? What was Abhishek's role there? Why did he choose to specialize in the cement sector? How important was this role for Abhishek in developing his entrepreneurial career?
- What was Abhishek's role in Fortune Interfinance? What was the switch like from a research analyst to a director? What were the challenges for setting things up in the family business? What was the trigger that told Abhishek that he must branch out on his own? How is being an intrapreneur different from being an entrepreneur?
- What was Abhishek's first investment? Where is this company today? Why did Abhishek decide to move from investing and syndicating from angel networks to set up his own fund? how many investments did he make before starting Rockstud Capital?
- How was the idea behind Rockstud Capital conceptualized? What does Rockstud mean? What was the genesis of launching a hybrid fund when the VC fund itself was a new concept in India? What was the whole experience like raising capital for the first time?
- What was the thesis Abhishek was going after when he was looking to invest in companies? What was the most challenging startup that he invested in? What are Abhisheks top 2 favorites in listed equities and startups?
- When should a founder press the accelerator when it comes to PR? After screening a bunch of startups, what's Abhishek's biggest advice to founders?
Episode XXXiii - Anindya Datta, Founder of Mobilewalla
57m · PublishedAnindya Datta is a PHD turned professor turned founder turned upcoming producer. He is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Mobilewalla, a global leader in consumer intelligence solutions.
Mobilewalla provides innovative data solutions that help data and marketing professionals better understand their customers. The offering enables their clients to build precise AI models that better analyse and predict consumer behavior and drive business results.
Key takeaways from the episode:
- What was it like to be at IIT Karagpur at that time? What role did Anindya’s extensive education play in his entrepreneurial career? How crucial was Anindya’s experience of being a faculty at Georgia tech?
- How was the idea behind Chutney Technologies conceptualised? What did Chutney Technologies do? How did Anindya get some of the best investors like Vinod Khosla on board? What is his learning from Chutney Technologies that he still carries with him today?
- What did Walking Stick Solutions do? What was the trigger that told Anindya to shut Walking Stick? How would Anindya describe his experience at Walking Stick in one word? What did he learn from your experience here?
- How was the idea of Mobilewalla born? Did Anindya know that Mobilewallla would be as big as it is today? Why did he decide to pivot to mobile audience measurement?
- What is Mobilewalla today and what does it do? What size should a business be before they approach Mobilewalla? How has Covid19 changed their business strategy? What's Anindya’s biggest lesson from the pandemic?
- How does Anindya manage to lead a team that is scattered globally? What is the key to creating a good work culture? Where does he see Mobilewalla in the next 3 years?
Anindya’s books recommendations:
- The New New Thing by Michael Lewis
- Double Indemnity by James M Cain
- The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain
Episode XXXii- Pawan Raj Kumar, Co-Founder of Hoi Foods
58m · PublishedPawan Raj Kumar is the co-founder of Hoi Foods and a serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of solid experience as an entrepreneur. With Pawan at the helm, Hoi Foods is building a strong network of cloud kitchens using a highly scalable and disruptive model of standardized food supply chain
Since its inception in 2017, Hoi Foods has come a long way - with over 150 active cloud-kitchens serving 5,000+ meals in a day across Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru.
Here's what you can learn from this episode:
- What industry was Pawan's family business into? Why was it important for Pawan to start as a welder? Does he bring some of that experience when he's looking at hiring management people for his ventures today? When did Pawan know that he wanted to start something of his own?
- How was Active Karma Ventures conceptualized? What was the one learning from his time at Karma that continues to guide him today? What was the trigger that told him that he should shut this business?
- How important was it for Pawan to move out of the business for a couple of years before returning? How does one get business from the likes of McDonald's, Pizzahut, and Dominos, as you did? Why did Pawan decide to leave and start something of his own again?
- What is Supa Star foods known for? What was it like shifting from institutional business to consumer business? As an entrepreneur, how does Pawan balance what the customer wants and what the company needs?
- How was the idea of Hoi conceptualized? Where does the name Hoi come from? What was the original idea behind building Hoi Foods? Where all does hoi pure currently deliver?
- How did Covid affect Hoi Foods? How does his past experience help in situations like Covid? What was his experience like fundraising? What was his goal after raising funds? What are the top 3 qualities he looks for in founders to invest in?
Pawan's book recommendation:
- The goal by dr. eli goldratt
- Pour Your Heart into It by Howard Schultz
- The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey
- Winning In The Digital Age: Seven Building Blocks of a Successful Digital Transformation by Nitin Sheth
Episode XXXi- Shelley Saxena, Founder of Sevamob
1h 0m · PublishedSevamob is an AI-enabled mobile-based platform that provides comprehensive primary healthcare to organizations in India and the US. Sevamob's care includes general health, vision, dental, nutrition, cardio-metabolic, infectious disease and ENT.
Shelley, an MBA degree holder from Cornell, is the Founder and CEO of Sevamob. He has previously worked with IBM and co-founded the profitable mobile technology company
Key takeaways from the episode:
- Being a part of IBM for 10 years, what were Shelley's key takeaways from his experience there?
- What was Shelley's motivation behind building his first startup, Saasmob? What were the biggest takeaways from this Saasmob journey?
- How was the idea behind Sevamob conceptualised? How did Shelley decide the speciality services he wanted to have in Sevamob? What is the price point for Sevamob?
- How did Shelley convince his first set of customers to back his technology? How many countries is Sevamob available in currently? What was Shelley's pitch like during his first round of funding?
- How does Shelley manage to run his company based out of another country? What are the 3 major differences between running a business in the US as compared to India? Where does Shelley see Sevamob in the next 10 years?
Episode XXX- Women's Day special
1h 6m · PublishedTo mark International Women’s Day 2020, we had some incredible women entrepreneurs on #DamaniTalks.
This episode features Mahima Kaul - Co-founder of Coutloot, Priya Goel Sheth - Co-founder of HobSpace, Ankita Sheth - Co-founder of Vista Rooms and Prerna Kalra - Co-founder of Daalchini.
Key takeaways from the episode:
- What were the 2 biggest challenges that they faced in becoming the founder they are today?
- What was the moment when it came together? The eureka moment.
- What is the most ridiculous question that they have gotten asked as a ‘founder’?
- How do these women manage to maintain a work-life balance question?
- Looking back, what is one thing that they wish they understood about entrepreneurship before they got started?
- What's their advice to budding female entrepreneurs?
Episode XXix- Dinesh Kumar Kotha, Co-Founder of ConfirmTkt
1h 9m · PublishedConfirmTkt is an online train ticket discovery and booking engine that delivers a seamless search and booking experience to travelers. They are now acquired by an online travel aggregator ixigo for an undisclosed amount.
Dinesh Kumar Kotha is the Co-founder & CEO of ConfirmTkt. Before starting ConfirmTkt he was a Software Development Engineer in a company known as o9. He also worked as an Application Developer(Java) in IBM.
Here's what you can learn from this episode:
- What was his role in o9 Solutions and IBM? How was the idea behind his first startup Meterup conceptualized? When did he realize Meterup was not going to scale?
- How was Confirmtkt born? What was the trigger that told him to leave his well-established job and work on Confirmtkt full-time?
- How did he meet his first investor- Pravin? What were his expectations when he came to pitch at Nasscom? How much money did he raise in the timeframe of Confirmtkt?
- How did Dinesh cut the burn rate in the initial stage and make a new path for the company? How did he build his first 100 users? How did he go from a 1k a day company to a 3crore a day company?
- How did the ixigo conversation take place? How did he work out the modalities with the acquisition during the pandemic?
- What are the 3 things he is proud of during his tenure with Confirmtkt? If he had a chance to do it all over again what would he do differently?
Episode XXviii- Shivalik Sen, Co-Founder of Vahanalytics
1h 2m · PublishedVahanalytics is a data analytics startup that allows organizations to track their vehicle fleet operations. The startup aimed to promote safe driving behavior among drivers and fleet owners by utilizing sensor data from smartphones and from tracking hardware in-built into vehicles. In 2019 Bike taxi app Rapido acqui-hired Mumbai-based Vahanalytics. The entire tech team of Vahanalytics had been moved to Rapido to set up the data science department.
Shivalik Sen is the co-founder of Vahanalytics. He is an engineer who set up his own driver analytics platform which was creating better drivers and safer roads by using cutting edge big data and machine learning techniques. Vahanalytics got acquired by Rapido and Shivalik went on to build his own models from scratch to build a better customer experience for Rapido.
Here's what you can learn from this episode:
- What did Driven do? What were the challenges Shivalik faced at Driven?
- How did Shivalik meet his co-founders? What convinced Shivalik to finally pivot?
- What did Vahanalytics do?
- What was Shivalik's experience raising VC money? How did Shivalik manage his investors?
- What were the biggest challenges Shivalik faced at Vahanalytics? What were his key takeaways from his experience?
- What was the trigger that told Shivalik that he must sell Vahanalytics?
- How was the transition from Vahanalytics to Rapido? What are some of the data science problems Rapido is solving?
Episode XXvii- Pavan Kushwaha, Founder of Kratikal
1h 25m · PublishedKratikal is one of the leading cybersecurity companies known for its state-of-the-art security solutions which includes cyber-attack simulation and awareness tool, email authentication and anti-spoofing solution; anti-phishing, fraud monitoring & take-down solution; phishing incident response, risk detection & threat analysis and code risk review.
Pavan Kushwaha is the co-founder of Kratikal. He is also an information security researcher, trainer and speaker. He has worked with National agencies and has been solving various Cybercrime cases. Pavan has trained over 10000 students from over 112+ nations on cybersecurity and has been acknowledged by many website companies as an information security professional.
Here's what you can learn from this episode:
- What was Pavan's childhood like? How was the startup ecosystem in his village on the outskirts of Agra?
- Pavan's experience as an instructor in Udemy and organizing workshops for students
Why did Pavan register Kratikal right after college? What does Kratikal do currently?
- What solutions does Kratikal offer to different organizations? How does Kratikal make money from its different products?
- How did Pavan find his first set of customers? How does Pavan keep himself motivated?
Pavan's experience fundraising. Where does Pavan see Kratikal in the next 5 years?
- How did Kratikal support their clients even during the pandemic? How can a start-ups identity the need for cybersecurity?
Episode XXvi- Omkar Shirhatti, Co-Founder of Karza Technologies
59m · PublishedMumbai-based Karza Technologies is a banking and business intelligence solution provider, set out to create products that empower lending institutions and corporates with cloud-based solutions for informed and intelligent decisions.
Omkar Shirhatti is the co-founder of Karza Technologies. Before co-founding Karza Technologies, he served as a senior consultant at Ernst and Young, a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction, and advisory services. he holds a prolific experience of over 12 years in the fields of fraud investigations and background checks
Here's what you can learn from this episode:
- How did Omkar's education help him in his entrepreneurial journey?
- Why did Omkar join the fraud investigation team EY? Why did he join EY over becoming an entrepreneur right away?
- What was the trigger that pushed Omkar to become an entrepreneur in this field?
- What products does Karza provide? How does Karza solve the challenges of the BFSI Sector?
- How is Karza score different from other credit bureau scores?
- How did Omkar meet his co-founders? Omkar's decision on adding a co-founder.
- How did Covid affect Karza? What was Omkar's experience in fundraising?
- What are the things Omkar does that help him achieve his best productivity?
#DamaniTalks has 56 episodes in total of non- explicit content. Total playtime is 59:40:34. The language of the podcast is English. This podcast has been added on November 21st 2022. It might contain more episodes than the ones shown here. It was last updated on May 24th, 2024 06:11.
