Best in Class with Harish Narayanan

"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it is about learning to dance in the rain". 

Sapna Chadha is a dear friend and the VP of Marketing for India and SEA at Google. She is a force of nature, and there's a lot to learn from her career journey. Her early years of learning from her inspiring mother, her experience dealing with imposter syndrome and building tenacity, her journey in Google creating exceptional campaigns and leading large teams - all of these and more can serve as inspiration for many. This is a no-miss episode for all the young women listeners of this podcast.

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps:

• 1:33 Welcome and Intro.
• 4:00 Childhood, growing up in the US, immigrant hustle, learning from her parents, seeing men supporting women in their journeys. 
• 10:54 Working moms of the past generation. Women in the work-force, and the issue of 'unpaid' labour. The power of having the right support network. 
• 26:19 What could men do to enable women? 
• 31:18 Tenacity and grit, in the face of imposter syndrome. The importance of having a good coach. Turning 'gremlins' into 'weapons'. 
• 40:12 The balance between self-compassion and pushing oneself to achieve greatness. "Balance comes from purpose". 
• 45:53 Storytelling and building a trusted 'real' brand with authentic stories. The story of 'Internet Saathi'. Her favourite Google campaigns. 
• 54:47 Nuances about marketing to Indians. Differences between marketing to Indians vs folks from South-east Asia. 
• 59:45 Building the skill of organisational influence. Understanding different perspectives, leveraging org behaviour, influencing without authority.
  • 1:05:31 Personal work habits, organisational processes and habits that help her lead a large org. "Multiplying herself" to increase leverage, by writing regularly to her team. 
  • 1:12:00 Raising confident children, with a growth mindset. 
  • 1:15:07 Meaning of success - "Doing transformational work". 
  • 1:20:20 Dance and Pranic healing. Bringing positive energy into one's life. 
• 1:24:54 Favourite quotes. "You can't make everyone happy, you are not pizza". "Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it is about learning to dance in the rain". 

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

Manan Khurma is the founder of Cuemath (www.cuemath.com), a leading math learning platform. He is a passionate educator, entrepreneur and a deep believer in making 'mathematical thinking' accessible and enjoyable to every child. My inner geek enjoyed this conversation and we explored many questions about math tutoring and enabling children to aim for 'mastery'. Don't miss the end section where we discuss Manan's favourite math equation, math constant etc. 

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started. 

Timestamps:

• 1:54 Welcome and Intro.
• 3:32 Why should everyone love math? The universal need for 'mathematical thinking'.
• 10:41 The history of how math has been taught (and the underlying problem with the approach). 
• 16:58 Different models of math education and scaling the impact. 'Aristocratic tutoring'. 
• 24:00 Scaling the quality of the teacher network. "A great teacher is someone who can engineer outcomes in their student".
• 28:30 Incentivising children to seek 'mastery'. Creating a 'gradual-ramp' to mastery. 
• 34:23 Entrepreneurship journey. Creating a 'math learning' company. 
• 44:46 Keeping the passion alive over the longer term. Building and aligning a team.
• 49:52 Dealing with competition. 
• 55:25 Favourite math equation, math constant, simple math explanation of a complex concept. 
• 59:42 Favourite books. 
• 1.02:51 Message to teachers and parents. 

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

Rajesh Jain (www.rajeshjain.com) is a legend in the Indian startup ecosystem. He is one of the earliest tech entrepreneurs of the country, one of the original success stories of the dotcom era and beyond (he is the founder of IndiaWorld & Netcore). He is a deep thinker and has wonderful insights on entrepreneurship, bootstrapping, bringing prosperity to the country, dealing with failure et al. Hope you enjoy!

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps:

• 1:08 Welcome and Intro.
• 3:39 His entrepreneurship journey, starting India's early dotcom company. 
• 10:44 Getting into technology & martech.
• 20:19 (Not) Raising external capital, building 'proficorns'.
• 28:56 Design choices to create bootstrapped companies.
• 36:13 Solving for India. Creating economic prosperity.
• 48:46 Making India 'irreversibly prosperous' using digital tech. 
• 51:23 Rapidfire: Writing every day, thoughts on Web3 and DAO, 
• 57:53 Closing questions. '30 failures and 2 and a half successes'. 

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

Karthik Srinivasan is a marketing commentator, solopreneur and personal branding consultant. He is a top Linkedin voice on all things marketing, and has incisive and insightful takes on brand storytelling from across the globe. He is also helping others build their personal brands and make their voices more heard. For all budding young marketers & brand builders out there, this one is a no-miss episode! Hope you enjoy it.

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps:

• 1:13 Intro + How he got into marketing.
• 6:46 The evolution of marketing and communications.
• 12:00 What do marketers usually get wrong?
• 14:47 Writing regularly, creating a writing process.
• 20:23 Journey as a solopreneur.
• 32:53 Long format vs short format storytelling. Brand vs performance marketing.
• 39:00 Favourite books.
• 45:21 Interesting personalities on social media.
• 46:34 Closing questions.

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

Karan Shroff is the CMO and Partner at Unacademy. He's a good friend and a fellow marketer, and there's a lot to be learnt from his career journey and his stellar work in brand building and content marketing. He's the driving force between Unacademy's "Let's crack it" campaign and superhit web-shows such as Kota Factory and Aspirants (co-created with TVF). For all budding young marketers & brand builders out there, this one is a no-miss episode! Hope you enjoy it. 

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps:

• 1:22 Intro.
• 2:35 Career pivots, learning brand marketing.
• 7:13 Joining Unacademy, building a brand from scratch.
• 12:37 Creative and storytelling, balancing brand building and revenue orientation.
• 17:11 Content marketing and the importance of relatability in content (Kota Factory).
• 23:28 "Let's Crack It" campaign and connecting deeply with the customers.
• 28:27 Role of TV and Digital Video in building a millennial brand in India.
• 34:10 Working with Sachin & Dhoni. Learning from the Champions. 
• 41:22 Building great marketing teams.
• 46:24 Rapidfire questions: Favourite brand, inspiring people, favourite books, movies. 
• 50:31 Advice for young marketers.

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

Gaurav Dublish is the Co-founder of the fantastic Indian outdoor brand Wildcraft (known for its superb quality products). His is a story of conviction and purpose-driven company building, and there's a lot to be learnt from how he and his company managed to survive and thrive during Covid, even though his industry was one of the worst hit because of the pandemic. Hope you enjoy this conversation!

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps:

• 0:46 Intro.
• 3:51 Purpose, passion, sustaining enthusiasm.
• 7:07 Career journey, finding his groove, founding Wildcraft. 
• 13:38 Starting up with conviction, taking risks, building a world-class product.
• 18:29 Bootstrapping, planning for the long run.  
• 22:24 Dealing with competition, childhood and growing up. 
• 30:03 Dealing with the Covid crisis, reinventing the company.
• 39:27 Hiring, finding great talent.
• 40:46 Resilience, empowering teams, leading by example. 
• 44:07 Love for the outdoors. 
• 47:11 Rapidfire questions (what belief has he changed his mind about?)

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

Rajan Anandan is a legend in the Indian startup ecosystem. He was a McKinsey consultant, then he moved to leadership positions in Dell, Microsoft and Google (I had the pleasure of working with him in Google and observing his leadership from close quarters). He's now Managing Director at Sequoia Capital and he spearheads their Surge program (early stage incubation + rapid scale up). He's a prolific angel investor with 100+ investments, a 10x thinker in everything he does, and a go-to advisor for all topics in the startup ecosystem. 

In our wide-ranging conversation, Rajan shares his life journey, investment frameworks,  thoughts on the India growth story, achieving big goals and much more. Detailed timestamps can be found below. 

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps:

• 1:03 Intro.
• 2:23 Risk taking, “The art of the possible”, life journey.
• 9:12 India’s startup ecosystem explosion, becoming the ‘most innovative nation’.
• 17:23 Celebrating startups, India’s digital ecosystem, structural and regulatory improvements. 
• 26:20 Angel investing, learnings from his angel journey, building a portfolio. 
• 38:34 Pushing 10x growth in a large organisation, building a team of believers.
• 44:24 Finding star talent (10x thinkers). Setting new best-in-class benchmarks. 
• 48:04 Finding passion ("Passion with capability"). Being extraordinary at something. 
• 53:19 Quick questions (books, message for the world - "Life is full of challenges, embrace it").

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

Jacqueline Kapur talk to me about her love for animals, mindfulness, adventure and a lot more! 

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps coming soon. 

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

Aditya Sehgal is one of the clearest thinkers I have had the pleasure of talking to; he is ex-President of Reckitt Benkiser, worked across multiple countries in top leadership roles, and the best testament to his leadership was that multiple folks I spoke to called him “the best manager / leader they ever worked for”. He has deeply thought out frameworks for career growth, personal development, decision making et al, and has honed these frameworks over decades of personal experience. I learnt a lot from this conversation and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. 

Aditya’s blog is at www.adityasehgal.com. Detailed timestamps from the conversation are below.

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps:

• 01:02 Intro
• 02:50 Frameworks, career journey, and power of compounding. 
• 08:04 Framework of being rich, ideas for his future, being a ‘door opener’ for others. 
• 13:20 Personal development, managing time, prioritising family, creating new habits. 
• 18:02 Developing teams, getting promoted, ‘gardening’ as a metaphor for building talent. 
• 22:08 Finding purpose. “The journey is all we have”.
• 25:50 Blitzscaling. “Be fast. Be big. Be bold.”
• 37:18 Scaling in China. Experiments and learnings. 
• 46:23 Learnings from the China market. Embracing the future. Hunting in packs. ‘Guanxi’.
• 52:22 Job satisfaction model.  
• 55:10 Quick questions.

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

Archana Parsai Gehlot is a very unique individual. She's a mother of two wonderful 'unschooled' children, and founder of multiple initiatives such as Asmakam (www.asmakam.org, an organisation promoting self learning), Cotfoo (www.cotfoo.com, an organic nutrition startup) etc. She and her son also created a short film about the education system ('The Lost Gift', link: https://youtu.be/R4v-zOsk_nc). A chance connection on Linkedin led me to learn more about her work and eventually, to this conversation. We talk about her experience of bringing up two unschooled children, living sustainably, 'believing in emergence' and much more. 

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps:

• 1:10 Intro.
• 5:02 Unschooling her children and the journey that led to it.
• 12:35 Her children’s learning journey.
• 18:38 Usual objections / concerns from parents about unschooling.
• 25:36 Rethinking our time priorities.
• 34:28 Slowing down, living sustainably. “Stay in the now, believe in emergence”.
• 41:49 Dealing with competition. “Arrival of the fittest”.
• 47:40 Finding self-motivation.
• 54:39 Quick questions.

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

Swagata Sarangi of Smytten (https://smytten.com/) is our guest this time! He's a serial founder, clear thinker and a prime example of how grit enables success. He has built a sampling platform for premium customers in India from scratch and this conversation is full of learnings from his journey. Timestamps and details of the conversation are below.

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps:

• 1:23 Intro.
• 02:30 Starting up late in career. 
• 10:30 Early years of a startup: finding the right problem and getting to the MVP. ("Digital intent creation.")
• 15:14 Grit ("we are all a victim of our childhood").
• 20:44 Finding a Co-founder, building the early team. 
• 24:24 Building product as a 'non-technical' founder.
• 26:46 Connecting the dots, in hindsight.
• 28:04 Mental models for hiring ("raising the bar on humility" & "choosing will over skill").
• 31:38 What was easier than expected & tougher than expected.  
• 34:53 Who should start a company? (And who shouldn't).
• 37:21 Getting the first customers. Then scaling from 1K to 1M. ("Creating the right initial cohort").
• 42:51 Quick questions: Favourite books, new learnings, key message to the world "Try something new!"

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

Nithin Kamath of Zerodha is our guest this time! Nithin is the co-founder of Zerodha, TrueBeacon, Rainmatter, and is a force to reckon with in the Indian Fintech ecosystem. He and his team have reimagined fintech with their many beautifully designed customer-friendly platforms like Kite and Coin, and their investments in other upstarts like Smallcase. His journey is also a unique case study in building a bootstrapped behemoth via unwavering customer obsession, in an industry that had large encumbents. Timestamps and details of the conversation are below. 

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps:

• 00:40 Intro.
• 02:47 “Specific knowledge“ that made Zerodha possible. 
• 06:57 Family background & support. 
• 11:58 Quitting his job and startup journey (portfolio advisory -> Zerodha). 
• 15:35 Scaling, ‘Right place right time’, 
• 22:55 The meaning of money and how it changed over time. 
• 27:08 The role of capitalism in today’s India.
• 31:42 Varsity and sharing financial knowledge.
• 34:51 Being bootstrapped, dealing with well-funded competition. 
• 40:37 Day-to-day priorities & helping the ecosystem grow with Rainmatter.
• 49:03 Hiring great talent, growing leaders from within.
• 52:24: Rapidfire. “If you don’t bet you can’t win, and if you lose all your chips, you can’t bet.”

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

Chinu Kala is the founder of Rubans Jewelry (www.rubans.in). Hers is a story like none other; she left home at the age of 15, did many odd jobs, faced rejection time and time again, stayed resilient and grew her own multi-crore business. It is a simple but inspiring story of grit for any young girl / entrepreneur out there. Hope you enjoy! Timestamps and details of the conversation are below.

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps:

• 01:05 Intro
• 03:31 Facing struggles and building grit (“No Plan B”). 
• 09:52 Entrepreneurial journey, learning to sell, Starting Rubans.
• 18:24 Learn and Work. And repeat. 
• 20:48 Building resilience by celebrating small wins. 
• 25:32 Building Rubans, the brand and it’s products. 
• 31:51 Scrappy scaling.
• 35:26 Dealing with setbacks. 
• 40:57 Support from family, friends and team. 
• 45:30 Rapidfire. Message for the world: “Love yourself”.

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

Rajendran Dandapani is the President of Zoho Schools (Zoho's meaningful alternative to conventional education, producing ~15% of Zoho's talent today). His is a life like none other; he dropped out of IIT, started his journey in Zoho 25 years ago, and has helped to transform the opportunities available in Tier-2 towns and villages in India. He also talks about his personal journey and redemption after hitting rock bottom, his experience unschooling his child (his son, who is now working at Zoho!). He has been a lifelong experimenter, optimist, and a clear orator; I hope you learn as much as I did from this conversation. 

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps:

• 1:11 Introduction.
• 3:28 The model of Zoho Schools and what makes them work. (Learning by osmosis). 
• 11:31 Genesis of the ZS model, initial years. (Scaling by experimentation). 
• 23:46 Stepping off the beaten path. Scaling the model. 
• 29:19 Learning to deal with ambiguity and uncertainty. 
• 36:11 Dropping out of IIT, finding himself, finding redemption, getting into Zoho. 
• 46:49 Unschooling his son.

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.

In this episode, I had the pleasure of connecting with Ankur Warikoo (https://ankurwarikoo.com/, @warikoo). Ankur was the founder of nearbuy.com, and before that, the CEO of Groupon India. He is a well-known teacher / mentor / startup guru and content creator who talks deeply about many important topics that are very relevant to today's youth. He thinks big and executes even bigger; and he helps many to learn from his experiences and his mistakes. I thoroughly enjoyed this hour long conversation with him on a wide ranging set of topics. Hope you enjoy it too. 

If you like this conversation, don't forget to subscribe, and please rate the podcast on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to it. Thank you and let's get started.

Timestamps: 

• 00:00 Intro.
• 01:00 Authenticity, and having the courage to be authentic. ("If you really know yourself, no one can touch you").
• 03:05 Curiosity. 
• 05:10 "Be like water".
• 08:10 Things to learn in your 20s. 
• 11:28 Finding 'Ikigai'.
• 15:12 Purpose and success. 
• 19:28 What do you want from life the most, right now?
• 22:37 Risk-taking appetite. "Resist the obvious".
• 28:40 Starting up
• 32:36 Thinking like an Entrepreneur
• 33:55 Wealth and freedom. 
• 39:54 Taking the family along on the journey. 
• 41:25 Following passion / teaching. 
• 45:10 Quick questions / favourite books / "If you don't ask, the answer is always no".

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed during the series are solely personal and do not necessarily represent those of my company / employers.